Stonington - The Board of Education's policy committee is about to begin formulating a proposal to head off problems that can arise from using social media.

Board Chairwoman Gail MacDonald said Thursday that the school system has already had to deal with issues such as teachers allowing students access to teachers' Facebook pages without using the appropriate privacy settings.

MacDonald, who also chairs the policy committee, said that when members first brought up the issue a few months ago, no other communities had yet dealt with it.

"We thought it was time that we needed to address this," she said.

The committee is just beginning its discussion and has not yet come up with any draft of a policy.

Several specific issues the panel will be dealing with are "sexting" - the sending of pornographic images via cell phone - and the use of social media in bullying.

MacDonald said that committee members will review suggestions for possible policy language that it just received from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.

She noted that the use of social media also has benefits, such as allowing teachers to communicate with students and parents about curriculum and other issues. She said a policy could apply to faculty and staff as well as students.

Recently some school districts in New England have begun to look at social media policies and are prohibiting teachers from "friending" students on Facebook.

Meanwhile a new state law took effect Oct 1. The law makes it a Class A misdemeanor if a teenager, age 13 to 15, sends pornographic images, or if a teenager, age 13 to 17, receives those images.

The board is beginning to discuss the social media issue as it continues to work on its proposal to make its policy on student drug and alcohol use and extracurricular activities more strict. Some parents have criticized that proposal, which allows students to be suspended from sports and extracurricular activities if they are found using alcohol off campus on weekends or during the summer.

Currently the policy only applies to on-campus or school-related activities.

The proposal also states they can be punished if Internet images show them drinking or using drugs or they attend parties where people are drinking or using drugs.