According to a recent study by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the USA, which distributed devices such as laptops and tablets to students due to distance education during the pandemic, followed all private information, including messages, to control the mental health of children.
As you know, after the COVID-19 pandemic, a distance education model was adopted to protect the health of students around the world. In the USA, it was one of the countries included in distance education, and in this process, devices such as laptops and tablets were distributed to hundreds of thousands of students on the grounds that they did not have a situation.
A recent study by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) revealed that the United States controls their private lives while helping students. According to the statements made, the reason behind the USA’s tracking of its students over the devices it distributes is, making sure students are in good mental health and helping them by identifying suicidal students.
Students knew they were being watched through devices
This surveillance system is installed through programs like Bark, Gnosis IQ, Gaggle, and Lightspeed, which cost schools tens of thousands of dollars. The purpose of this platform, which is described as surveillance software, is to identify and help students who are violent or suicidal, use drugs, have eating disorders, and are addicted to pornography.
The interesting thing is that many students and teachers knew that they were being watched by the distributed devices, and according to the information given by some students, if a student’s status is not sufficient to buy the device or how dependent he has become on that device “that much” was being watched.
A school administrator used the following statements in the research conducted by CDT; “We knew there were students out there who were prone to things like suicide or self-harm. This platform also helps us identify students who are bullying others. If I can save a single student from committing suicide, I believe every penny we spent on this platform will be worth it.”
Although it seems to the benefit of the students that the schools in the USA have such a system, on the other hand, it has received great criticism on the grounds that it violates their private lives. Jessa Crispin of The Guardian, that students deserve the same privacy as all people the best way to protect a child from such incidents. making sure she’s with a family she feels safe with stated that.
Source :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/us-students-digital-surveillance-schools