California Bill To Regulate Student Social Media Monitoring Services

California's legislation that would regulate social media monitoring of secondary students is one step away from becoming law.  AB-1442 is now on the governor's desk and awaiting his signature or veto.  The bill appears to compliment SB 1349 that protects the social media privacy of students.  While I believe this bill is a good first step, it should be expanded to include post-secondary students.

AB-1442 is greatly needed because companies are approaching secondary and post-secondary schools to social media monitor students.  In secondary schools, these companies generally claim their services help prevent bullying and youth suicide.  In post-secondary schools, these companies generally claim their services help protect the brand of the school and "educate" students. 

Several years ago, social media consultants/their companies focused on monitoring student-athletes in colleges.  They approached school athletic departments and told them to require student-athletes to provide access to their personal social media accounts via disclosing/authenticating user names/passwords and/or installing cyber monitoring software via apps and/or other means.  For approximately $10,000 per year, these services claimed they would help protect a school's athletic brand by monitoring their student-athletes social media activity.  

Since this issue first gained national attention, dozens of states and Congress have introduced and/or enacted legislation that protects students, schools, and taxpayers from these troubling social media consultants and their services.  Our children need to be protected from some of these companies because the founders of these services may lie about the legality of their services and/or intentionally misrepresent their background/experience.  Some of these companies have also been caught re-purposing personal student social media posts for advertising purposes. 

For years, I have warned about the dangers of wide spread social media monitoring of students.  These services may lead to tens of millions of dollars in legal liability for schools along with undemocratic censorship (either self-imposed or government created) by stifling our students' free thought process.  When I read George Orwell's 1984 in high school, I never imagined that U.S. schools would consider implementing these troubling monitoring services.

Absent stronger laws to regulate social media monitoring of students, I am afraid we may become Airstrip One (the location of 1984) and our children will not experience the same privacy protections that previous generations enjoyed.

Shouldn't our children be able to learn from their digital mistakes without fear that they will follow them for the rest of their lives?  Instead of spending money to social media monitor our students why not instead use the same resources to educate them?  Have some school districts forgotten about the phrase, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?  

Carpe Diem. O Captain My Captain fight for liberty, privacy, and freedom. 

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