Journal #7

Should Schools Regulate Offsite Online Behavior?

By Nancy Willard and Lynn Wietecha

This entire article discussed whether or not school officials should regulate the use of online behavior of their students. There were one argument for each side of the question and each side had significant evidence and opinion to back up their answers. The first answer, yes—school officials should regulate the use of online behavior – argued that there are too many school related violent crimes that could be stopped if officials knew what was being posted online. The advocate for this opinion also mentioned that safety is a huge issue in public schools. School is the only place that a kid should feel completely safe, and now that is not the case because of the hate words and slander that is being posted online constantly now-a-days.

On the other side of the spectrum, another woman said no – school officlals should not regulate internet use of the students. She did agree that safety should be a primary concern for the school, but teachers are educators, not babysitters.

Schools definitely should be involved if something that is posted on the internet if it poses safety on students. But, officlals shouldn’t be the ones monitoring the use. That’s what parents and guardians should be for.

1. Who should monitor internet use of students?
I believe that parents should be monitoring internet use of their children. It is difficult enough for educators to keep up with behavior at school, then go home and have their own lives. The job of parents and guardians is to parent and guard their own kids. Once safety becomes an issue to their child, then the issue should be brought to the school for the administrators to handle.

2. How can parents monitor their children’s internet use?
Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to know everything that their child puts on the internet. That is why parents should create an atmosphere at home where their kids can be honest. This is a romanticized idea of family, but that is what I think it takes for parents to monitor their kids. It is not the job of the school to notice everything kids post on the internet. It is impossible.