We opted out of our schools laptop program that would have allowed my daughter to bring home a laptop from the school to do homework on. While there were a number of reasons why I was against it - the cost of the deposit and the fact that we have the technology at home, so we didn't need it - I was really concerned with the lack of privacy she would have. The school's computer administrator made it very clear that they would be checking logs without provocation and if they found anything that seemed wrong there would be dire consequences. I thought: Really? You feel you have the right to read my child's emails or files without my permission because the state is providing a computer for her. No, thank you. My teen was no longer interested either. Then I bought my daughter a jump drive(Compare Prices) and she carries her homework back and forth on that.
After seeing the video about the Pennsylvania school that used the Webcams on the laptops it gave its students as Spycams, I'm very happy with the decision we made. Can you imagine? It's not even the fact that this school was brazen enough to turn the cameras on - stolen laptops or not - but the mere fact that it had the ability to peer into its student's homes is just creepy. It is not a wonder parents in that community are outraged.
Asking our community: What do you think of schools having the ability to spy on your teen? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments area.
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Creepy is the operative word here. Where the school system got the idea that such intrusive and heavy handed policies would be appropriate I have no idea- but they should be forced to explain themselves. They seem to fundementally not get it- that turning on a camera and snapping photos without someone’s knowledge IS spying- and security and laptop retreival does not exempt them or make it ok. The superindant borrowed a playbook from credit card companies and said this feature would not be turned on again without the “express written notification” of parents. Great- all that means is they write a letter- these people don’t get it. They really believe they have the right to spy on children, families and strangers all for a laptop. Children are not for sale for the price of a laptop.
The last year that I taught high school, we issued every student a laptop. They were used for classwork as well as for homework, and the school district was anticipating the opportunity to load textbooks on the computers so that students did not have to lug heavy textbooks. In addition, school-issued laptops mean that all students have access to the same programs, which may not be available on home computers. Laptops can be wonderful learning tools, and the idea should not be dismissed because one district used terrible judgment. I’m not sure why the school district felt the need to turn on the webcams to find missing laptops. At our school, students were responsible for the laptops issued to them. Stolen laptops were covered by insurance, and parents were responsible for the $200 deductible.
I am so sick of these schools and their intrusions on our childrens rights. These schools adapt strong policies and then use them to their advantage. Whomever did this should be arrested and have charges brought againist them, I don’t care who you are it’s illegal to spy on people. The schools have too much control and the funny thing is they are so busy controlling students outside of school that they can’t teach them inside.
Sooner or later, someone smart will tap into that technology, and post/sell pictures of your teens changing clothes. No system can be fully protected from hackers…and once a picture is out there, it can never be made to go away.
This is sick, I’m really outraged, as the mother of a teenager myself, that no stronger measures are being taken about it. Nothing can justify that intrusion on a student’s, a family’s life! If you lend a laptop for the single purpose of homework and such, there are ways to prevent other programs from being installed and the free use of the internet. Make a school site available with all the information the teen needs and restrict the internet access to this one place (some sort of intranet). I really think it would be better, in view of the restrictions, that they just build a computer lab at the school building, and make it available for the students, maybe with a time-limit per day.
Honestly, if you’re giving your teen a computer, he will want to use it to do many other things, like surfing the internet, chatting, playing some electronic game, nothing unexpected. If that won’t be allowed, why in heaven’s name are you delivering it with a web cam? What is the use of a web cam when you can only do homework? If the student doesn’t return the laptop, the school knows where he lives, many legal measures could be taken, so that’s no excuse for spying! There’s definitely something fishy here.
You allow the free use of the computer or you don’t! If you don’t, just block the other functions. If you do, leave the students alone, for nothing gives you the right to spy people’s homes. The parents control what happens inside their houses. What’s the purpose of that? Do they want to spy on the teen’s behavior at the internet, what sites and services they use, to sell the information, to have an edge on some kind of profit source or teen manipulation effort? Are they gathering information on specific students, or specific student’s families? And the photographs taken, so many implications on that, I wouldn’t even know where to begin, it’s disgusting! Who are the people handling the acquired information and what are they doing with it? What’s the justification, that’s the least they should be answering the parents from the start, seriously.
I wouldn’t even allow the useless (and potentially harmful) laptop inside my home, but the first thing a family in possession of one of those should be doing is taping, sealing the web cam, so nothing can be seen from it. And no particular information ever being shown on it, since they could also capture everything on the computer screen (and it’s possible that the passwords aren’t safe on it either). I would return the thing and asap and get my money back.