Digital Smarts - The Unintended Consequences of Monitoring Students’ Online Lives

New studies are looking at the unintended consequences of schools using monitoring software to scan students’ communication and searches online.  In one study, 61% of parents and 57% of teachers say monitoring students' devices “could bring long-term harm to students if it is used to discipline them or is shared and used out of context”, according to a report from the Center for Democracy & Technology. About half also said online monitoring tools could bring unintended consequences, including "outing" students who are LGBTQI+. A large minority of parents (49%) and teachers (40%) said online activity monitoring violates students' privacy rights. Nevertheless, 62% of parents and 66% of teachers said the benefit of online monitoring outweigh the privacy concerns. According to one of the reports: "While a potential goal of student activity monitoring software is to prohibit access to obscene materials, these findings raise questions about whether tracking students may cause them to hesitate before accessing important resources (related to mental health, for instance)."