I went an elementary school today for an event. There was a sign on the front door saying “If you have an Ipad or tablet with please check in with the office as it is a student safety issue”. What is that about?
Kids getting mugged for their tablets:
There are also privacy concerns for children with tablets, which can make children vulnerable to online predators and the like:
I suspect the biggest concern is that they want filters on all the devices to try to keep out mature content.
Wouldn’t they filter that through their WiFi systems rather than through each individual machine?
then the teachers/administrators couldn’t get to it.
Many tablet computers use a cell signal to access the Internet and even if they can’t, most phones can offer a WiFi hotspot using its cell signal.
Being able to control the Internet by controlling WiFi access is so 2000’s. 
You can use a web filter to block a student from browsing certain sites. However, it won’t prevent the student from installing apps that may contain or give access to such content through a different channel.
The best way I’ve found to prevent that sort of thing is to install a security certificate that restricts certain actions, features, and apps. That is usually installed manually, or at least the mobile device management client that downloads the certificate is installed manually.
Was the sign permanent? I mean, did it seem like the sign is for STUDENTS with tablets should check in? Or was it temporary, like for just for the event you attended?
So if you sign in at the office with your tablet, what do they do? Do you have to leave your tablet at the office? Or do they just give you a tablet safety lecture and brochure?
If they have an intranet, they may want to make sure that all devices brought behind its firewall have proper antivirus software installed.
Makes sense if they are school owned. But what about if you want to use it normally at home? I can’t think of any method if detecting you were on campus that couldn’t be easily thwarted–disable GPS or connecting to a particular WiFi connection.
By now, I figured we’d have legal faraday cages in schools, forcing the use of school WiFi or nothing. With some easy 911 Access built in.
My best guess is that the visit to the office is so they can make sure you know the rules for tablets and other wireless devices. The “Student Safety Issue” is they don’t want the elementary school kids to get in trouble for having an unauthorized device. Perhaps a bit of a stretch for the word “safety”, but the TSA has stretched it so much that it is hardly recognizable anymore.
Sorry, guess I’m behind the times technologically. Let me just check my WordPerfect documents and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets to see if I have something on the topic somewhere…
But seriously, if these things are so, what’s the point of having devices brought to the office on entering the school? Are they going to install some kind of filter on the device?
Is this supposedly about people visiting the school who are carrying a computer at the time?
No way would I let anyone at a school install any software are browse through my files to make sure it’s somehow acceptable in their eyes. They want to protect their computers, and their students? I understand that, and I’m going to protect my computer from them.
It would make more sense just to tell people that no non-school computers are allowed on the premises. I would be a lot happier leaving it in my car than having someone with dubious knowledge and skills rooting around in my computer.