“Honestly, We’re Not Spying on Kids”: School Surveillance of Young People’s Social Media

Abstract

Social media is one of the top activities and sites for young people’s socialization in North America, raising concerns over their social privacy, because of reported instances of cyberbullying and sexting, and their informational privacy, because of commercial data collection. A trend in schools and school districts in the United States is to monitor and track, through third party applications and software, student social media during and after school, in an attempt to prevent or reduce the perceived dissemination of violence, bullying, threats, or hate instigated by students and directed toward other students or entire schools. This article will provide an overview of four of these US companies (Geo Listening, Varsity Monitor, Snaptrends, Digital Fly) and consider the policy and ethical issues of data monitoring with respect to young people’s rights to privacy and their freedom of speech.