As you've heard on KMOX, some schools in the St. Louis area are monitoring everything your child does online.
Administrators say it's for students' protection.
Online safety advocates say it's teaching young people a much different lesson.
"About half of students said that when they know they're being monitored, they do not feel comfortable expressing their true thoughts and feelings so they're actually repressing, " says Elizabeth Laird, Director for Equity in Civic Technology for the Washington DC-based Center for Democracy and Technology. The Center surveyed students, parents, and educators about software that tracks online activity.
One of the first troubling issues for Laird is awareness. The Center's research found one in five parents has no idea whether their school is using this type of software. "Most of these programs run in the background so there's no visual indication that this is happening and so a number of students and families find out that it's happening when they're contacted about an alert that they didn't even know was being run."
Another concern -- how data gathered on students is being used, "while the stated purpose is to keep students safe... our research shows that it's actually far more common to be used for disciplinary purposes." Nearly 80% of teachers told researchers that their school has used these surveillance tools to detect policy violations and target students for discipline and Laird points out, "that's much higher than any student that's been flagged for mental health crisis to be given help and assistance." Just half of teachers surveyed say it's been used to get student behavioral health services.
Listen to Part 1 of S is for Surveillance
Then there's worry that what happens on school devices and school networks, doesn't always stay on school grounds. "When these are alerts are coming in after hours, 37% of teachers said that those alerts get automatically forwarded and shared with law enforcement," says Laird. "44% of teachers say they know a student that has been contacted by law enforcement because of software."
All of this has Laird and others asking if the desperation to keep kids safe, is actually causing greater damage. "Disciplining them and putting their life on a totally different path can be harmful to them. Sharing this information with law enforcement where there really aren't limitations around what they can do with it can reinforce the school to prison pipeline. Using this technology in the name of mental health but then the result is that students are actually suppressing their true thoughts and feelings, or not accessing resources that could help them because they know they're being tracked... that could have a negative mental health implication."
"Do we want to be labelling either intentionally or unintentionally, children, before they've even graduated middle school? That's very worrisome to me!" That's Emily Cherkin, a former Middle School English teacher and a parent of an 11 and a 14 year old. She's known as The Screentime Consultant, calling herself an advocate for better technology practices. "I'm a former teacher so I want to believe that the relationships we are building are based on trust. When we are surveilling students, whether they know it or not, how is that going to help build trusting relationships?"
A lot of public scrutiny has been leveled at Gaggle -- one of the major players in the student monitoring universe. "For me Gaggle represents one of many companies that is profiting off of... fear," says Cherkin. "It's this false sense of security, like we're offloading this protection to another company, and we don't know what the interests of that company are."
Cherkin tells KMOX she shares concerns it will all go too far and result in profiling. "Giving that information or data to law enforcement so that they can make predictions about which kids might go on to commit a crime, that's hugely problematic, especially if we layer in poverty or socioeconomics or race."
Listen to part 2 of S is for surveillance
A recent Senate investigation also raised concerns that low-income students who rely more on school provided devices and networks for internet access could be disproportionately impacted by online surveillance.
Cherkin tells KMOX what our children really need is help with social emotional skills and face-to-face interaction, "if you have a friend who is self-harming or has eating disorder issues, do we want an algorithm flagging it on her laptop, or do we want her friend to say hey I'm worried about you, can we go talk to the counselor together, or go to talk to the teacher."
As we conclude our series Thursday on KMOX, what you need to know as a parent to ask the right questions about online student monitoring in your school.
@2023 Audacy (KMOX). All rights reserved.
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