Laws, Laws, Laws...

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is the law that requires school districts to educate students about appropriate online behavior (Common Sense). The law leaves it up to districts for how they carry out this education. In my opinion this is a flaw of the law. In my own district we have zero direct instruction on online safety in regards to bullying awareness and responses. We do not have a technology or computer elective class. Homeroom teachers have access to a class set of Chromebooks and it is their discretion to teach students how to use the devices appropriately. I would love for my school to hire a technology teacher that students go to as part of their specials rotation. Another option is for the school to purchase a curriculum teachers could follow to best teach the necessary content areas for each grade. However, I think realistically it would save time and be easier to just integrate the content into our core subject areas. 

COPPA is a federal law that gives parents permission to control what information is collected about them under the age of 13. This law requires schools to get permission from the parents prior to using the technology services. There is a loophole in the law that allows schools to give students permission to use the technology services only for school based reasons. There are harsh penalties if students information is used in anyway without educational purposes (Student Privacy Compass). I wonder how often that portion of the law accidently gets broken?

(Image Source)

According to researcher and author danah boyd, COPPA teaches kids to lie about their age; "On the internet, every child is 14." I completely agree with her bold comment. I would argue that most children that use the internet lie about being 13 or older or lie about a parent supervising them while using the internet. I think the intent behind COPPA is great, however, the execution carried out by families and children is flawed. I think a potential solution for this issue is through the education of parents and families. My school organizes many parent school events and learning presentations. We can plan a online safety even where professionals present the dangers of allowing young children to use the internet without supervision. We can offer alternative websites for children to frequent until they are above the age of 13. For example they can explore YouTubeKids.

How do you think we, as a society, could uphold this law better on a large scale? 

In general I think any law has flaws and areas for improvement depending on who you ask. In regards to technology, I think the laws should be updated and amended frequently as trends and systems change frequently. I am intrigued to see how these technology laws evolve as technology evolves throughout my career.