The US, like all privileged countries around the world, found that demand for digital devices at the start of the pandemic was massive, if foreseen, and yet they managed to start this roll-out ahead of the challenges – caused in part by the crisis – with the supply of chips. But, according to The Guardian Newspaper, this success came with a loophole: schools “ended up spying on students”. While well-intentioned – in order to prevent bullying, suicide, drug use, pronography etc. – the reality is that this is a contravention of their privacy above all else. Previous similar experience of installing more security cameras in schools and heightening police presence has done nothing to reduce problems and purely exacerbated stereotypical behaviour towards minority groups. The monitoring data on devices gets feedback to, in some cases, the cause of possible home abuse, i.e. the parents so can deteriorate existing difficulties at home. While millions of dollars have been spent on the measures and lauded from some parts of the educational hierarchy, however as the article concludes, “It’s not clear whether students are going to benefit from this surveillance, or if it is merely going to reduce schools’ liability when an act of violence or self-harm takes place.” Technology can be deployed safely and securely that can help to prevent the bullying, searches for information on suicide, drug-use and pornography. Escudo Web has one of the leading solutions in this regard that can enable teachers to manage classes more effectively, allow schools to manage access to content only appropriate to their age and when a device is taken home, can enable the parent to manage internet access, without spying on the child.
#spying #privacy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/us-students-digital-surveillance-schools