In the wake of protests on the University of Missouri campus
following the resignation of the school system’s president and its flagstaff
campus chancellor amidst racial criticism, the campus saw an increase in
threatening and racially charged posts on social media. One app used, Yik Yak,
allows people within a limited geo-range to post anonymously. This carries a
unique concern as those posting threatening messages can do so facelessly. One such poster, 19-year-old Hunter Park was
arrested after making a post threatening black students to Mizzou’s Yik Yak.
His post was linked back to his IP address after police were alerted.
Representatives from Yik Yak and Yeti (another anonymous
posting app) say they don’t share user information unless police make a request
due to what may be a legitimate threat — something that’s happening more
frequently in the recent year.
Schools have been stepping up and taking a greater interest
in what is being said about their institution and their students online. Three
in four college officials said in a recent survey by the consulting firm
Margolis Healy that their administrators monitor publicly available social
media networks, and 64 percent of campus safety staff said they do as well. A little more than half say they keep an eye
on Yik Yak, but the majority of them said they focus on Twitter and Facebook. A
national study found school threats increased 158 percent during the first five
months of the 2014 school year compared to the same period in 2013. Of those,
28 percent of the threats reviewed came from social media sites like Facebook,
twitter, and Yik Yak.
There is the question of whether
schools are invading the privacy of their students by monitoring post. Some
middle and high schools are going as far as searching for keywords to keep
track of potential cyberbullying and even hiring third parties to monitor for
them.
To me, it
makes sense for schools to want to be in the loop on what is being said at
their institutions and about students who attend it. School officials are taking
an interest in the safety of their students and staff, especially in the wake
of charged events like the protests at the University of Missouri. I think it’s
fine that schools keep watch. Social media offers a unique opportunity for
student bodies as a whole to express their opinions freely and unprompted,
which school officials can use to better gage the emotional climate at school
and bring up more threatening post with authorities. The First Amendment
prevents schools from prohibiting merely offensive comments but observing them
like any other party is what the platform was created for. Students have the
choice to post things publicly or privately and posting anonymously is not a
free pass to being able to say threatening things with impunity.
Sources
http://www.myajc.com/news/local-education/schools-use-social-media-watch-for-threats-violence/OvftncegJvXOUGAHy6CPYI/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colleges-monitoring-social-media_us_564f4756e4b0d4093a5765ae
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/mizzou-yik-yak-arrest?utm_term=.nvkn9jnwY#.et2YjEYwm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/turmoil-at-mizzou_us_56437477e4b045bf3ded443f
http://cyberbullying.us/schools-monitor-students-social-media-accounts
I think that it is a good idea for schools to keep an eye on social media posts that are related to the school. If the things being posted can be viewed publicly, I don't really see anything wrong with the schools looking at them. However, I think that monitoring should be done in moderation. I think that it is good for schools to be alerted to threatening messages. However, I question schools spending large quantities of money to have people monitor students' social media in the name of preventing and stopping bullying. I am not convinced that this will really be effective. I think the money could be better spent in anti-bullying programs or hiring more school counselors.
ReplyDeleteI agree that schools should be allowed to keep watch. Students pay thousands of dollars of tuition to attend college and part of that is knowing you are safe and that school resources are there to help you. Social media allows people to say things they might otherwise not be able to, this can be positive or negative. If someone makes a threat on social media in relation to something on campus or school-related the institution should know about this. Otherwise they are not taking an active role in learning about the student bodies' needs/concerns/feelings.
ReplyDeleteI think that schools should be able to keep watch, however, I do not think that it is always the schools responsibility to take action. Unless the bullying or threats are pertaining to the school, I think that the students have a right to privacy. If a student is posting offensive things on their Facebook page, but it does not have anything to do with the school or a student, I do not think that the school can do anything about it because that student has the right of free speech on social media. I agree with what Hannah said, that schools should not put a lot of time and money to constantly monitor social media, and that money would be better spent in other anti-bullying activities. I feel that if the school is constantly monitoring student social media, that would be extremely invasive and excessive.
ReplyDeleteSchools' monitoring of students' social media posts can definitely be considered a good thing, since as it was pointed out, it is way too easy nowadays for someone to engage in threatening behavior, especially if the person can remain anonymous. Each individual school has a responsibility toward their students of promoting both a safe campus and a respectful climate, and being on the lookout for students engaging in threatening behavior online can help with this.
ReplyDeleteIf you make a public post on social media, you shouldn't have an expectation to privacy. Similarly to posting a sign in your front yard, public posts can be seen by anyone, and therefore I believe that schools are entirely justified in monitoring these. As it has been previously said, this allows them to take an active role in trying to prevent bullying, harassment, and physical harm. But there's a bit of a grey area surrounding private posts. Should schools monitor social media activity on school property or with school computers? Or just ban these sites entirely? Do you have a full time Facebook patrol who pours through the posts of hundreds of students or maybe just web crawlers with specific parameters triggered by key words? Perhaps it would be good to use the power of the students themselves. Establish an anonymous tip line or email screenshots of hurtful posts to administration. If a bully were to post something offensives it's the expectation that only their Facebook friends would see it and a student shares this post with an administrator do we just decide that social media is a zone where you simply have no expectation to privacy in the things you post? Or is there an expectation to privacy, but the community’s interest in the actions of a bully outweighs the bully’s privacy expectation?
ReplyDeleteThe thoughts and questions swirling in my head are similar to Christian's. Where is the line between privacy and safety in these cases and when should it be crossed? I think that cyberbullying is a serious issue. I think that students in high school and below, at least, should be monitored somehow on social media. (I question whether students above a high school level should be monitored as well... I'm not sure). I think that schools should monitor this activity (I like Christian's suggestions of how to do this). I remember when I was young, I bullied my cousin in my neighborhood (we went to the same school, but the incident didn't happen on school lines), but then the school found out and I was punished at school. The school's responsibility for the safety of their students does not end once the students are no longer on school property. Social media is yet another sphere for interaction and potential harm between students. That harm is real, physical and potentially deadly. I think the safety of the students is more important than high school student's right to privacy (I want to say minors, but some high school students may be over 17, and I don't think that they should be given a free-pass while they are enrolled at an institution with majority minors). I like Christian's suggestions of using triggered key words and of providing an anonymous tip line for students to stand up for others and themselves (in addition, I think providing a screenshot or proof would be helpful to putting an end to the bullying). Students are vulnerable to harm, especially high school age and below. They are experiencing a lot of change and emotions. I have seen many people who are deeply affected to what happened to them during their school years. Some people have those same feelings even twenty years later. And some people don't make it past their school years because of the negative interactions they had with other students online. I think that the harm that bullying and cyberbullying cause outweighs individual privacy concerns. Also, when I was in school I remember not really understanding internet safety and believing that those rules didn't apply to me because I wouldn't get hurt. But then people around me started getting hurt and I started being interested in protecting myself. I think that the school monitoring student activity should be accompanied with educating students about internet etiquette and safety.
DeleteI was also thinking more-or-less this same thing. If we see that schools monitoring social media accounts benefits safety, it would seem to be natural to expand this practice, especially if it can be done in an automated way (such as automatic keyword searches). The advantage of automation is that it would be cheaper, and only having the words read by an impartial computer wouldn't be an invasion of privacy (in my opinion).
DeleteHowever, then the question of where to draw the line becomes more urgent! If every citizen is being constantly surveiled in what they publicly say, there is legitimate concern of abuse of that information. At the same time, it is fairly straightforward to tweak your Facebook settings so that information posted is not visible to the whole world, which would at least allow people to keep expressing their thoughts with only the people they want to talk to.
I don't think schools should really feel the need to monitor their student's social media posts, but if they feel it is necessary they have every right to do it. Social media is publicly available information and some people seem to have a really hard time grasping that. A school absolutely has the right to look at a students posts, but it is what they do with that information that I care about. I don't like it when schools start thought policing, but there are definitely some ideas that are not even worth discussing.
ReplyDeleteAlison...what about part two of the question you were asked: Should college officials affirmatively seek the identity of students who make racially or gender offensive posts on anonymous apps?
ReplyDeleteI think students should be monitored while at school, but schools should not have the power to reach into their private life. The parents of students should monitor their online activity, when at home. If a student makes threats or other damaging actions online, they should be reported, and have their information turned over to the police. Anonymity is to protect our identity online, so we are free to say anything, unless it threatens someone's safety. However, this applies at home. While in school, students must follow their schools ettiquet. The parents are responsible for controlling the student's behavior. If cyberbullying is happening, the school may be involved if a student or parent asks the school to intervene.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's perfectly reasonable for schools to monitor students social media posts for signs of harassment or bullying. Bullying often occurs in private (locker rooms and bathrooms for example) on school premises, and just as schools monitor the physical activity happening on school grounds, so too should social media activity be monitored for the sake of preventing/discouraging harassment. I do think that there is a privacy expectation line that schools can't cross (having cameras in locker rooms or bathroom stalls for example) but keeping a general watch for specific key words/posts/users would be fine.
ReplyDeleteI agree that schools should keep watch. There is no crime in searching key terms or monitoring activity. As we have discussed in class, there is always a risk that what we post online may be used against us; we willingly forgo some of our privacy by becoming involved on social media. If the schools were hacking into students accounts to read their messages...that would be a different story.
ReplyDeleteI think you all make a good point in saying that whatever is posted on social media is public, so schools are within their rights to access it. Even so, I like the idea of schools focusing only on offensive posts that came up automatically through searches rather than schools browsing through everyone's posts on a regular basis. I feel like that would be a more effective use of resources and time.
ReplyDeleteI think the big difference here is that the school doesn't really care who the individual is, only how they're acting. Universities that monitor social media are not trying to classify you into media campaigns, they're trying to protect their students and their name. In a way, it's just as though the University is just a person, using social media just like anybody else; adjusting to their community, and engaging with them on the modern platforms. Also, if you're an agitator who is using social media to spread your message, don't you expect/want your message to spread to anyone and everyone--so what are you expecting in the first place?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is appropriate for schools to take action when threatening posts are made online. I also do not have a problem with schools monitoring public posts. As others have mentioned one should not have an expectation of privacy if he or she is making a post online. However, I do believe that there is an expectation of privacy for posts that are made anonymously. With anonymous posts schools should only infringe on an individual's privacy rights if there is a legitimate threat to safety.
ReplyDeleteI believe that schools should definitely be monitoring the social media influence that their students are having, but the action that they are able to take on that information should be limited. To answer the second question that Prof. Dryer posed, I do not believe that the schools should have the authority to obtain the personal information and identities of the anonymous posts. If necessary, these schools simply need to get the police involved, and the police do have the proper authority to gain such knowledge once a threat is deemed credible. If someone merely posts an offensive opinion, however, as opposed to a threat, they should not have anybody tracking them down to explain themselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you Devan and Zoey for answering the second question!
ReplyDelete