Our sister newspaper, the Malta Independent on Sunday, broke the news that several schools are imposing rules that forbid teachers from being “friends” on Facebook.

The moves are welcome and long overdue. We have seen what can happen when teachers and students become too friendly. The results can be tragic. But Facebook has bred a familiarity between teachers and students that is often very innocent, but at times can cause problems. A simple flick through the social networking site shows that students and teachers can end up liking each other’s status updates as well as photographs and more.

It is not healthy. Teaching methods have changed and there is more familiarity nowadays. But some distance needs to be maintained. The over familiarity has a two pronged effect. It can obviously lead to attention from one, or both sides which is obviously not right. As we have already said, such flirting can lead to illicit relationships between teachers and students. This does not only happen in Malta, but all over the world. In addition, over familiarity can lead to students not taking their teachers as seriously as they should.

In hindsight, everyone is wise and the move to ban the social network ‘friendships’ should have been made long ago. But like with many things in this country, we only take action when it is too late.

Teachers really should have the good sense to not allow their students to become their ‘friends’ anyway. In Malta, we still suffer from the hangover that teachers (and other professionals) can do no wrong. But it is abundantly clear that they are human and humans err. It is not to be condoned in any way, form or manner, but teachers (male or female) can succumb to temptation – as aptly described in the song Don’t stand so close to me, penned by Sting and performed by the Police. The opening lyrics go: “Young teacher, the subject Of schoolgirl fantasy; She wants him so badly Knows what she wants to be.”

Social networking has changed the world as we know it. Parents need to keep abreast of developments in this respect. It is not easy, but the first steps of eliminating any possible abuse start at home. It is impossible to keep tabs on everything that children and teenagers do in cyberspace, but in at least keeping up with latest developments, parents can have a better understanding of what goes on.

A good chunk of schools have imposed this new condition already. But there are others who have not. It would be interesting to know the take of the Malta Union of Teachers in this respect. The government and the Education Ministry should also take note of these developments and lay out their stance on the matter.