As you know, after the COVID-19 pandemic, a distance education model was adopted in order to protect the health of students around the world. In the USA, it was one of the countries included in distance education, and in this process, devices such as laptops and tablets were distributed to hundreds of thousands of students on the grounds that they did not have a situation.
A recent study by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) revealed that the United States controls their private lives while helping students. According to the statements made, the reason behind the follow-up of students on the devices distributed by the USA is to make sure that the mental health of the students is in place and to help them by identifying suicidal students.
Students knew they were being watched through devices
This surveillance system is being installed on schools through programs such as Bark, Gnosis IQ, Gaggle, and Lightspeed, which cost tens of thousands of dollars. The purpose of this platform, which is described as surveillance software, is to identify and help students who are violent or suicidal, use drugs, have eating disorders, and are addicted to pornography.
Interestingly enough, many students and teachers knew they were being tracked by deployed devices, and some students reported that the less a student’s status was enough to buy a device, or the more dependent he was on that device, “the more” he was tracked.
A school administrator used the following statements in the research conducted by CDT; “We knew there were students out there who were prone to things like suicide or self-harm. This platform also helps us identify students who are bullying others. If I can save a single student from committing suicide, I believe every penny we spent on this platform will be worth it.”
Although it seems to the benefit of the students that the schools in the USA have such a system, on the other hand, it has received great criticism on the grounds that it violates their private lives. Jessa Crispin from The Guardian stated that students deserve the same privacy as all people, and that the best way to protect a child from such incidents is to make sure that they are with a family where they feel safe.
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