Lets start with the news...A school district in Cali has hired a company to keep an eye on its student bodies social networking account. They school district claims it is to help protect the students by looking for signs of suicide, or violence. They claim that well here read all about it yourself, as I am not a news source I am a crazy persons opinions....School spies on its student body.
OK now lets get to my opinionated ramblings. First I am a father of 3, one is 14 and in middle school. I am also a person who enjoys his privacy and I cant stand when someone I don't want in my business starts prying. At the same time i believe that if you have nothing to hide then you got nothing to worry about.
Part of me feels that in this case, its a good thing. Especially since we are going through a period of time in which parents have no clue whats going on with their kids, or just don't care to actually do the job that they signed up for when they brought kids into this world. Think I am wrong, then tell me how many of these shoot everyone up crazy people had parents that didn't say "Oh not my Johnny he was such a sweet good boy." Yeah that's what I thought. Better yet why is a video game, and its creators being blamed when an 8 yr old is allowed to play Grand Theft Auto and then has access to a hand gun?
If you are not going to play the role of parent, if you are not going to take an active role in your child's life then someone else needs to. Not only to protect your child but to protect those around him/ her. So if this school district can prevent a school shooting or help walk a child away from the edge of suicide then so be it. These children are the future of our planet and someone has to protect that investment. Especially the teachers and principals that spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with our children. In a lot of cases that's a heck of a lot more time than a lot of parents spend with their kids. Like I said if your not gonna step up and do your job, someone else needs to.
So this could be a good thing, as long as the company doing the searching is not abusing its findings, or a students privacy. Not that I believe anyone under the age of 18 has a right to privacy. Of course I grew up in a place where everyone knows everyone and everyone's parents protected and parented every kid in the community. My concern would be the company using their findings to sell information to other companies, or to do some other kind of unethical things. While they are keeping an eye on the students who is keeping an eye on them?
Which brings me to the other side of the coin. Is this a purely innocent, we want to protect the students kind of action or is this a we want to prepare them for a life with no privacy? Is this the next step in getting people to accept that they live in a country where drones are common place, and that some 3 letter government agency is listening to your phone calls or reading your emails? I guess that depends on you and how much you truly believe that the government is out to spy on you. Which again comes down to what do you have to hide.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Is this a good thing? Or is it one more step to creating a country run by Martial Law?
Well, Yeah it kinda goes both ways. Those strong words spoken by Ben Franklin were, IMO, at a time when we were gaining our independence or had just gained it. So I don't really believe they apply here. Again, just my opinion. I do believe that until we get things back under control at our schools, that this step needs to be taken. I remember getting mad, uh no, dam mad, when my oldest forged my signature on a note (which at the time I was on deployment and the school was aware of it) and it got past her teacher because the teach was "to busy" at the time she turned the note back in. Anyways, I have to agree with the school on this one. For the time being anyway. Great subject matter there Will :)
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