As we finish 2024, the next semester at Canadian colleges and universities is right around the corner. Educators see unique challenges with regard to running background checks on both faculty, student teachers, volunteers and other staff and this is where social media background checks should be a key consideration.

In Canada, which has a population of approximately 39 million people, about 4 million have a criminal record (approximately 10%.) A criminal record check will pluck out those who have risen to the level of a criminal record, but what about the other 90% who did not?

Social media checks have exploded in popularity because of that 90%. How many times have we heard, after a horrific incident on a school campus, that the perpetrator showed behaviour in their social media that could have indicated that there was a problem?

A social media check is not an investigation that produces a pass or fail. A social media background check is an unbiased screening of an individual’s social media activities. Their activities, not what a third party is reporting via a database like the RCMP or a credit reporting agency as two examples. What is unsurfaced is based on what they themselves have engaged in online.

Social media activities include things the individual follows, likes, favourites, shares, comments, tags (including tags from others), etc.

A social media background check will help the educational organization identify students and faculty members who have engaged in content relating to:

  • illicit drug and substance abuse.
  • violence.
  • unlawful activity.
  • hate speech.
  • sexually explicit information and more.

These can be evident in an applicant’s actions, views, and behaviours – but the above activities may never end up in a criminal record (if they were never arrested, charged, convicted), which is what makes social media background checks so important.

Where younger faculty, student teachers, volunteers and other staff are concerned, they may be too young to have had enough time to gain a criminal record. Their activities on social media likely are more prevalent.

The social media background check opens the door to conversations for the faculty member, student teacher, volunteer and/or other staff to explain flags that may have surfaced. Social media background checks also cut both ways because they can also quickly validate a positive behavioural history through a clean check.

We mentioned bias earlier in this blog because it is a major benefit to social media background checks. Using a social media background check provider will mean your team is working with unbiased third-party data, vs a staff member looking at social media profiles and forming personal opinions about a candidate based on what they see. Perhaps those dispersions form at an unconscious level, leading them to exclude applicants who did not even have anything on their social media that would have prevented you from hiring them or allowing them to reside on school property as two examples.

This is also very helpful with international students. Social media has no borders.

Don’t get us wrong. A criminal record check should be performed on all faculty members, student teachers, volunteers and/or other staff including scheduled rescreening. However, when coupled with a social media background check, your purview is widened leading to the best choices as it relates to public safety at your school.

For more information about social media background checks please visit www.tritoncanaada.ca.