Thousands of American schools are turning their eyes ai power Surveillance technology for 24/7 monitoring of student accounts and school-issued devices such as laptops and tablets.
The goal is to keep your children safe, especially Mental health crisis And the threat of school shootings. Machine learning algorithms detect potential indicators of problems such as bullying, self-harm, suicide, and alert school officials.
However, these tools raise serious questions about privacy and security. In fact, when the Seattle Times and Associated Press partnered to investigate school surveillance, reporters inadvertently received access to around 3,500 sensitive, unedited student documents through record requests. The documents were saved without a password or firewall and could be read by anyone with a link.
Below are important points investigation.
Surveillance technologies like Gaggle are not always safe
Privacy and security risks became apparent when reporters from the Seattle Times and Associated Press submitted a request for public records to Vancouver Public Schools in Washington to request information about the type of content they flagged by the monitoring tool Gagle. Used in around 1,500 districts, Gaggle is one of many different companies offering surveillance services, including Goguardian and Securly.
Gaggle saved screenshots of the digital activity that triggers each alert. School staff mistakenly provided reporters with a link to them, unaware that they weren’t protected by passwords. Students in these documents revealed the most intimate aspects of their personal lives, including suicide attempts.
After learning about records that were accidentally released to reporters, Gaggle updated the system. Currently, only those logged into their Gaggle account can view screenshots after 72 hours. Gaggle said the feature is already in work but has not yet been deployed to all customers.
The company says school emergency contacts (often receiving these alerts late in the evening on mobile phones) can respond quickly to the links to ensure they can access the links without logging in during the 72 hours.
There are no independent studies showing that surveillance technology increases safety
The long-term impact of surveillance technology on safety is unknown. Independent studies have not shown that students can measure suicide rates or reduce violence. The 2023 RAND Report found only “slight evidence” of benefits or risk from artificial intelligence surveillance.
“Stopping more alerts without the right number of mental health counselors doesn’t really improve suicide prevention,” says Benjamin Boudreaux, co-author of AI ethics researchers.
Experts warn that having privacy to express emotions is important for the development of healthy children. However, advocates of digital surveillance point out that school computers are not the right settings for this kind of unlimited self-exploration.
LGBTQ+ students are particularly vulnerable
There is a warning to argue that surveillance software poses unique risks to LGBTQ+ students. Records released by the Vancouver school show that at least six students were potentially kicked out by school officials after writing about suffering from gay, transgender and gender discomfort.
When North Carolina’s Durham Public Schools piloted the Gaggle, LGBTQ+ advocates reported that Gaggle alerts about self-protection had students kicked out by their families. Another student raised concerns about losing trust with the teacher. The board voted to stop using technology and determined there was no risk of eroding relationships with adults.
Parents often don’t know their children are being seen
Parents interviewed in this article said that their children’s schools either did not disclose that they used surveillance software or filled in the disclosure of long technical use forms. Even if families know about surveillance, schools may refuse to opt out of them.
“Imagine growing up in a world where everything you’ve ever said on a computer is being monitored by the government,” he said, failing to lobby the kids’ school district in Owasso, Oklahoma, allowing kids to opt out of gags. “And you have to accept it and move on. What kind of adult do you make?”
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