Poll: Schools stalking students; Does this seem right to you?

[viranimus]

To counter the OP edit It does not matter if the device, IE: a personal laptop as cited or a wifi enabled smart phone, etc. The internet connection itself is property of the school. If your using the schools network it is absolutely no different than using a school computer. Who do you think is footing the bill? Last I checked Internet isnt free. And paying for network access and utilizing their router system for wifi access your still accessing their network.

As for teachers stalking I know it happens. I got called into the principals office over my then 13 yr old step daughter because of threatening comments she and other friends made to a classmate on myspace, (back when Myspace was still more popular than facebook) to which the principal provided me with the comments my step daughter had wrote, but would not show me any comments from any of the others involved. This whole incident supposedly was initiated by the girl, but time filtered out the bullshit and none of the kids ever once brought this to the parents or the school. Most of the parents were not fluent enough in social networking at the time to even know what myspace was, So the only ones left was the school administration trying to poke its nose where it absolutely did not belong.

This is sincerely wrong.

 

[DSEZ]

Cyber bullying is made out to sound worse than it actually is and to be honest i think its funny that my school would monitor me

PS. if my school does happen to come look at this post

Fuck you ms sine your a ***** lol

 

[elvor0]

Seriously, I cant see how anyone can be really effected by cyber bullying, the worst that happens is just people sending you nasty messages. Spam filter, block; wehey no more cyber bullying, done and dusted. It sint like real life where you obviously can't do that and the only alternative is a violent lash out with a chair or something.

 

[Aeterna]

cyberbullying? fucking cry m0ar pl0x, if u can't stop someone bullying u through technology don't use it >.>

EDIT: thats was my id speaking. bullying is a serious issue, and i've had good mates who've been on the receiving end, not cyberbullying however. I don't think violating the privacy of every student, who may or may not be involved, is the right way to go about it. i'd suggest something along the lines of; find bully through victim's communication then break all the cyber stuff he owns.

 

[Kouen]

if its on school hardware in school hours yes i do fully agree,

School kids should be using that equipment for learning not going on facebook and other such non learning activity's.

If it however involves Personal home computers then no I Strongly disagree, at that point its up to the parents.

as a side note Cell Phones / Mobile Phones should be banned in all schools xD

 

[MarcFirewing]

I think it's ridiculous to monitor the students activities for many reasons.

It violates many internet privacy acts instated for the sheer opposite of what they're doing and can technically be punishable by laws. But because the government of the United States thinks they're doing some good, they wont do jack shit.

Cyber bullying? I'm not sexist but most cyber bullying happens to females because they get too involved romantically with a guy on the internet. That's what I've seen on the news anyways, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I've hardly seen any males that were a victim of cyber bullying unless it's because of their sexuality. Once more, correct me if I'm wrong as I don't pay attention to the news anymore.

And I concur with Ultratwinkie on the fact that, if they can't protect you from being beaten to hell physically, why should they even bother with Cyber Bullying? It's not even a real crime that's occurring anymore in most states. So why bother reading through someone's personal life? Hell if my school had wanted to read my facebook, I would've started insulting them on how crappy they made the school.

Call me nuts or whatever, but that's just my personal outlook on it.

 

[londelen]

Children are second class citizens in the eyes of the law. I tried to revolution back when I was a kid, but it didn't work.

 

[Nackl of Gilmed]

So these schools want access to every internet forum and social network for every one of their students to browse through everything they do online? Is that what's happening? How is it even possible?

 

[Superbeast]

I think it's fine.

The kids are using (from the sounds of it) school-issued computers at home, and when they are in school they are using the school network.

All of these things are private property. The school has the right to monitor whatever the hell it wants with them in terms of security.

so if i log onto a porn site... they could see me and what i watched? well that would be embarrassing. They would have turned would-be cyber bullying to real-life beatings. That they can't stop beatings because schools dealing with physical fights is nothing more than a joke. Nice way to make a small problem worse.

Simple solution - don't look at porn in school, or on a school PC? Oh no, the horrors and the loss of freedom!

Come on. In every walk of life computer access (that isn't your own) is monitored by whomever the computer belongs to. Looking up porn at work will get you fired in the same way that looking up porn in school will get you into trouble.

also how the FUCK can they find your PC then monitor it? They can barely wipe their ass without red tape and they want to wire-tap thousands of computers? who is gonna monitor the info when it DOES get sent in? it will only be thrown into a room no one goes into other than the janitor to clean up the place.

From the sounds of it, they can't. It is just if the students are using school-issued laptops when not on campus (as they'll have to log in through the school User-ID system). The kids can do whatever the hell they want on their own personal computers (a the parents will have their own internet connections and it won't be routed through the school's proxy server).

Honestly, everyone seems to be blowing this out of proportion. I bet for 99% of the people commenting here, they've been on/are in a similar system (whether they know it or not). Computers at school, at work, university, hell public cyber-cafes - all have internet access monitored to check that you are not going to whatever sites are prohibited in the "terms of use" that exist within the organisation - the company/school doesn't want to get into trouble for having child pornography (or any porn really) on their system, or be at greater risk of viruses that can shut the entire network down.

I think it's ridiculous to monitor the students activities for many reasons.

It violates many internet privacy acts instated for the sheer opposite of what they're doing and can technically be punishable by laws. But because the government of the United States thinks they're doing some good, they wont do jack shit.

It is important to note that the computers/network are the school's private property. Freedom of speech does not exist within schools, as they are legally entitled to set rules for conduct of behaviour. Part of going to school (whether you signed it or your parents) is to agree to a school charter, in which there are several terms of use. One of these is responsible internet use, i.e. not using facebook, forums or looking at porn in school - violating this charter is an equivalent of breaking a legal contract, hence schools can expel students - and having a system to monitor internet access whilst using school hardware/software is not "violating internet privacy acts" but the full legal right of the school to protect it's property and uphold the student charter.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

It's a terrible and flawed solution to a terrible and sickening problem.

Just how to solve the issue of cyber-bullying is beyond me, however.

Suck it up!

Suck what up, exactly?

Cyber Bullying. It is just a problem if you care.

 

[Red Right Hand]

I try not to make people choose between extremes but I have to wonder your opinion:
(short for TL;DR people) It has recently come to my attention that after a decision to 'crack down' on cyber-bullying my school's authorities have decided to monitor each and every one of students' contributions to anything that can be accessed with a computer and a modem; this means that they have full access to private messages and posts on anything from Facebook to Deviantart, removing any illusion of privacy we have on the internet.
So I ask you a question: does this (the removal of internet privacy) seem like a fair way to deal with cyber bullying in schools?

Well, if the removal of privacy only applies to when you are in school, then I'd say it's fair. Don't want teachers invading your privacy, then don't use facebook or private messages at the school. Going without internet chatting or whatever for a few hours at school isn't going to kill anyone.

This does not apply at school (a PROXY server prevents it) They actually have access to what we write at any time, anywhere.

Simple solution. Set your privacy options so that only your friends can see your profile. Also, how can the school see your private messages? I thought they were, you know, private.

EDIT: I see now, you are using a school issued computer. Just don't use that computer for whatever illicit activities you do. I see no problem as it's their computer. If, on the other hand, they could monitor your activity at home on your own computer, then we have a serious problem.

 

[chinangel]

big...brother...is....watching...>.> <.<

 

[Snownine]

If you are on their computer I think it is fine but when you are at home then no it is not.

 

[zidine100]

If you connecting to there network or using there hardware, they have got every right to monitor you.

 

[Beryl77]

No. They should rather do something against the normal bullying because I think that that's worse that cyber bullying.

 

[Superbeast]

ah so they don't wiretap our HOME computers? Their system is practically worthless now.

No they don't (though the government might with the Patriot Act *zing*).

In terms of actually preventing cyber bullying, yes it's worthless (unless the bullies are idiotic enough to do it in school) - although perhaps apart from those bullying attacks that are hosted on the school intranet/website, or printed off using school printers/photocopiers and stuck up all around the school.

Mostly, I suspect, it is to protect the school from litigious parents whose child is being bullied. By having a monitoring system in place the school can legally say that it is doing all within it's power to protect the children left in it's care during the day, however as the attacks come from outside the school and not via school property, it is not a matter that they can reasonably prevent - and thereby have no legal responsibility should they fail to act to help the child.

The "cyber bullying" is pretty much just an excuse, which is daft because they don't actually need one as they have the full legal right to monitor their network and computers.

 

[Disaster Button]

I think its fair. Firstly, you probably shouldn't be posting on Facebook or DA at school and secondly its not as if this is going to be broadcasted around the school for all to hear. They've always done this at my school and it doesn't bother me at all as long as its only used for protecting students from bullying and not trying to "censor" the lives of the kids.