Understanding The Importance Of Cyber Safety and Student Data Policy

Schools, administrators, and parents need to balance privacy and safety. The Covid 19 pandemic has caused depression and anxiety, which lead to the spike of self-harm incidents and suicides among students.

Parents are schools deeply concerned about what the students are exposed to online, which contributes to their deteriorating mental health. 

As a result, schools are turning more and more towards technology vendors that provide student cyber safety solutions. These solutions have proven to be very trustworthy and effectively protect students online, but they have also started to manufacture student data privacy concerns.

Many students develop their abilities using class material, but some may choose to speak to top assignment writing companies on the internet. Parents should monitor if these services are trustworthy or not.

When combined with other quality dimensions like context, teaching and learning environment, and learner characteristics, learning data can indicate the aspects that have the most impact on learning outcomes. Data may be used to identify underserved and underperforming populations by identifying discrepancies in student achievement and service supply. Inequities can be addressed once they’ve been detected. By demonstrating whether increasing public investment in education has resulted in verifiable advances in student accomplishment, data may be utilized to hold the system responsible for using resources. Although the school is primarily responsible for the results, decision-makers at all levels of government are responsible for the enabling policy and practice environment.

What is Cyber Safety Monitoring?

Basically, cyber safety monitoring means the ability of adults to keep a check on the activities of minors online to help keep them safe from any unnecessary danger. Cybersafety monitoring also includes ensuring that children are not giving away private information online. It also protects them from predators, scams, and exposure to explicit and appropriate content. It also encompasses spotting signs of a child being cyberbullied and then being pushed towards self-harm and monitoring various toxic online behaviors.

Digital gadgets and similar things can help students have a better educational experience. Smart device use in classrooms and on school grounds, on the other hand, might have negative implications. While most instructors are concerned about children being distracted by cell phones and computers, few consider data security. When students log into school computers or use their public WiFi, they are exposed to common security threats. Students’ data might be jeopardized if school computers and networks are not secure. Furthermore, students’ data might be exposed to the educational process in other ways than through digital gadgets.

Schools frequently request various forms of personal information. Typically, people are required to reveal their home addresses or other personal information. If schools do not have proper security policies and procedures, all data given to them may be in danger.

Wondering How Cyber Safety Monitoring Effects Student Data Privacy?

Over the past several years, parents and students have come forward with many concerns about cyber safety monitoring programs and applications affecting students’ privacy rights. Some of those concerns include:  

1. Schools allowing 3rd party vendors to collect student activity data and personally identifiable information: The major reason to raise this valid concern is that students’ personal information gets exposed. Now, someone can easily use the information against that individual if they fall into the wrong hands. This might cause a problem in the future when students apply for college, scholarships, jobs, etc.
2. Vendors selling of student profiles: This is also a major concern as the vendors might sell students’ personal information to other companies for marketing and advertising purposes.
3. Living in a “surveillance state”: Students and parents find that schools and 3rd party vendors track their every move online. 
4. Data Security: There are also concerns raised about how well the schools and vendors are trying to protect the personal information that they collect. Accidental data leaks and malicious attacks expose students to identity theft, online harassment, and more.
5. School authorities, district administrators, and parents need to work together to find the right balance between keeping the students safe and protecting their privacy.

Approaches to Student Online Monitoring

Different districts take different measures to cyber safety monitoring, most typically based on the devices students are using. The most common approach is students can have a certain degree of expectation to get some amount of privacy while using a device that belongs to the school. This is quite similar to an employer using a device provided by their company. Layers of monitoring technologies must be used so that the information of a particular device can be kept secure.

Social media is the root point of a significant amount of cyberbullying, inappropriate content, behavior that is toxic, etc. That is why parents pay so much attention to what is being done on social media by the students. But, this does not mean the authorities should turn a blind eye to the things that risk safety in their application domains. These can also be a home to all the risky things that can be seen on social media.

Schools and parents should work hand in hand to give the students a healthy environment online and offline while also protecting their privacy actively.

Importance of the monitoring and student data policy

1. Safety: First and foremost, most kids do not know all the dangers exposed to. This is when monitoring steps to keep them safe from bullying, identity theft, etc.
2. Right to privacy: This inculcates among the kids the importance of privacy. Let the kids know that they have the right to privacy and nobody can exploit them just for fun. Let them know that there are laws to protect this right.
3. Knowledge of what is inappropriate and appropriate: Discuss with them the reasons as to why certain things are age-restricted. Explain to them the risks of going downhill if they act in an age-inappropriate way. Moreover, this helps you keep their actions in check and know what they are up to online.
4. Thinking before sharing: Monitoring their actions is important but telling them to think twice before posting anything is also important. So that nothing they post can be held against them in the future.
5. Encouraging respectful behavior online: Monitoring lets the kids know that they are constantly being watched. This will encourage them to behave well online.

The Bottom Line

Using unsecured networks and devices at school poses the greatest danger of student data leakage. While schools should take steps to secure sensitive information, students should be informed of the hazards. Teachers should urge kids to understand more about fundamental internet privacy and security dangers and why it is critical to safeguard their IP addresses for data security. If a student asks, “How can I disguise my IP address,” the best answer is to use a virtual private network (VPN). Encourage parents to install VPNs on their children’s gadgets when they are younger. On public WiFi networks, this service provides complete data encryption.

Author Bio:

Mayuri Banerjee is a well-known professor having 5 years of experience teaching science subjects. He developed a passion for teaching due to being surrounded by educators as a child. Mark spends his time producing and disseminating instructional material on the internet and loves to enjoy girl ps4 games. He enjoys addressing key political concerns that affect the country’s educational system.