CIPA & COPPA

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For this week’s blog post we will discuss CIPA and COPPA.  CIPA stands for the Children's Internet Protection Act.  According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website, this act was created in the year 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene material that can be found over the internet.  This act requires schools and libraries who do not receive discount internet access through the E-rate program to follow certain guidelines in order to be in compliance with this act.  Schools and libraries must have internet access filtered, monitor students’ activity on the internet and teachers must teach students about cyber safety.  My school district is in compliance with CIPA.  It is stated in the school district's Student Technology Responsible Use Policy.   Underneath the section about CIPA in my school district's policy, there is a section about Responsible Use Policy (RUP) that is with connection with the school district’s compliance with CIPA.  RUP states that CIPA only applies to school-owned technology on the SHSD 151 Internet/network, on non-school networks and offline and; privately owned technology that is connected to the SHSD 151 internet/network and on privately owned networks while on school property.

My school district monitors student’s internet activity within all four schools and from the district office.  My school district uses a program called, LanSchool Teacher Console.  According to the company’s website,  LanSchool is classroom management software used by schools to monitor students' activity in a digital classroom. It includes a screen monitor, keystroke  monitor, teacher-to-student chat feature, URL monitor, and camera monitor and microphone access.   This software is also used on the public side of my library. Also each school within the district has a technology teacher and an IT person that goes over cyber safety and the student technology responsible use policy.  If students do not abide by the rules, they can be suspended off of district own technology for the whole school year.  Their online work will be paper-base.  However, the student’s policy does not mention anything about COPPA.

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COPPA stands for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), this law was created to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13. This act was passed by the United States Congress in 1998 and took effect in April 2000. One of the main goals of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online.  I know that when parents register their students online for the school year, they have a choice to give their consent or not in terms of showing their students name and picture online or in the school’s newsletter.

Both CIPA and COPPA are supposed to protect our students and I feel that only CIPA does just what it is set to do.  Then again, CIPA might cause problems in public libraries because certain tax payers who use their own public library feel that they should use the internet any way they please.  However, COPPA is not really protecting our students and it’s because of their parents.  I can remember being on Facebook one day and I get an invite from my cousin’s son. Before I even accepted the request, I gave her a call.  I told her that I got a friend’s request from her son on Facebook and I wanted to know if she knew that he was on Facebook.  He son was only 10 years old at the time.  She knew that he was on Facebook but he was only allowed to log on when she was in the room.  He was supposed to get approval of any page or friend request that he wanted to add to his page by her.  She let me know that I can deny his request and that she will talk to him about the rules that was set for him.  My biggest concern was his age and the fact that if he logged on while she was not in the room.  He might have logged into his account outside the house.

Most parents care and most don’t when it comes to their children and social media.  Some parents feel that it’s harmless.  However,  when something serious happens, then they blame the schools for not teaching their students about being safe online.  The schools do their part of educating the students and the parents (if parents show up to school related activities on this topic) but the parents must remember that teachers only what their students only seven hours a day.  The other 17 hours in a student’s life per day belongs to the parents.  It is the parent’s responsibility to control what the child does at home and online.  Nine times out of ten, parents don’t even know that their child has a social media account until it’s too late. This is because their students lie about their age in order to get their own accounts.  

According to the research study, Why Parents Help Their Children lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’, COPPA does not force companies like Facebook to restrict access to children under the age of 13. Rather, it seeks to make certain that parents are informed about website data collection policies and have choices and tools to express their preferences when sites want to collect data about their children. This study also points out that in terms of age restriction and maturity, parents do not understand the relationship between Facebook’s minimum age requirement and COPPA. Parents often encounter age restrictions that are culturally understood as being about maturity in terms of the drinking, driving or enlisting in the armed services.  Parents need to get in the right mind set in terms of their children utilizing social media.  If you are a parent that allows your child to have an account at an early age, then talk and monitor your child’s online activities.  If not, then still talk to your child and still monitor their cell phones because chances are they have downloaded social media apps through those cell phones for use.  I think that CIPA and COPPA creators need to revisit their guidelines to make them stiffer.  I also think that libraries and school districts need to invest in technology events to educate students and parents more to bridge that gap.  I know that my school district does a technology night every year for students and parents.

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References

Boyd, D., Hargittai, E., Schultz, J., & Palfrey, J. (2011). Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’. First Monday, 16(11).  Retrieved on February 12, 2019 at https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i11.3850

FCC (2017). Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). FCC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

FTC (2018). Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). FTC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule

South Holland School District 151 Information Technology Student Technology Responsible Use Policy. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 http://www.shsd151.org/downloads/information_technology/student_technology_responsible_use_policy.pdf