I’ve just read this article:
[
](US schools demand kids hand over passwords)
What’s the Straight Dope here?
I don’t understand why schools wouldn’t have this right.
Children are not full legal persons—their guardian adult(s) are their representatives. Schools act in loco parentis.
Whether it is morally right or even a good idea is a separate question, I think, but children don’t have the same rights as adults, and certainly not the same fourth-amendment protections.
To the point that they become the full legal guardians of said children?
During school hours, yes, that’s my understanding. I’m no expert. But how would it work, otherwise?
Hmm. A brief perusal of wikipedia suggests that it doesn’t allow violations of students’ civil liberties, which would seem to cover passwords. So, I’m not sure.
My guess is the students are smarter than the teachers, and will hand over only the fake passwords or the names for only the accounts the school knows about. There are a dozen ways around this.
Think about it-If they had full guardianship, they could order all students to have vaccinations.
Thanks, schools, for teaching kids the value of having multiple accounts.
Well, I was required to have vaccinations to enroll in school, which was also a required thing, but that was a rather long time ago with parents who were inclined to trust the system.
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Think about it-If they had full guardianship, they could order all students to have vaccinations.
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But they can’t, so they don’t. What’s your point?
Regards,
Shodan
In Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007), the US Supreme Court found that a school decision to suspend a student for conduct outside school grounds and school hours was permissible. The conduct in question was something that, if done by an adult, would unquestionably be a protected First Amendment exercise: the student made and displayed a banner reading “BONG HITS 4 JESUS,” across the street from the school during the time that the Olympic torch relay passed by.
If the student was using school computers to effect their bullying or write their socially subversive messages, then I would say, yes, they would have the right to demand access to the account.
In loco parentis. When you get into social media – which is accessed via the kid’s (and therefore the parents’) private electronics, then the parents have the right to say no.
If bullying is happening on social media and *related *problems happening in school, screen shots should be taken of the bullying posts and the bullying occurrences in school should be addressed. Otherwise, what kids do online, on their own time, is no one’s business but the kids and their parents.
ETA: like kids can’t just change the password, write something vile, leave it up for a bit, then take it down and change the PW back. Or have multiple accounts.
From the article quoted in the OP:
IIRC, Facebook and the other social media moguls put it in their terms of service that you cannot give your password to anyone, and that doing so is grounds for closing the account, a few years ago in response to companies trying to demand that prospective employees give up their passwords.
Can a public school require a student to violate a legally binding contract? I don’t think they can, and it’s sure to lead to some interesting courtroom hearings.
The article says, “…it must be open to school officials at any time…” (emphasis added).
This seems to contradict the second paragraph’s claim that: “…School districts in Illinois are telling parents that school officials have the power to demand the social media passwords of students if they are suspected in cyberbullying cases or are suspected of breaking school rules.” (emphasis again added)
The first sentence of the article reads: “US schools continue to believe that they have the power of god over their students.” The article itself is poorly written, poorly researched, and poorly reasoned.
I am suggesting that reliance on any of the article’s claims is untenable.
Right, I read that. I know what the law says. What I am saying is that I think they should be allowed to access the accounts if the students used school property. I think they should not be allowed to ask for it if it happens from private electronics. I am stating my opinion.
Why the hell are kids on Facebook from school computers? Shouldn’t they be used for, um, school stuff?
Block FB from school. Block Instagram and Twitter, too. There is no educational need for social media use in school.
Sounds fair enough. Considering Facebook’s policy about sharing passwords, however, I propose that social networking sites be blocked on all school computers.
I agree, that would make sense. Especially since school computers should be used for school work.
I think you guys are showing your age. They’re doing this on their phones not asking for passes to the computer lab so they can go torment someone on Twitter.
ETA and yes, they shouldn’t be using their phones at school, but they do. Most of my employees are high school kids and I know they text/FB/IG etc all day long at school.
As for handing over passwords. I suggest that a better idea would be that if someone feels that cyberbullying is going on, it should be reported to the police who can than use the legal system to access the account. FB works with police on these matters and will give police full access to accounts that includes even things that the person thought they deleted (nothing on FB is ever deleted, it’s just not displayed to you or the public anymore). Cyberbullying (and real bullying) would go away a lot faster if people took it more seriously.