Monitoring Student Research Paper

The Real Outcome of Monitoring Student Social Media Accounts
Schools in many districts have decided to start monitoring student social media accounts when they see signs of cyberbullying or even self harm on the students accounts. The goal of this project was to protect students and to prevent cyberbullying. Schools should not monitor students social media accounts because students should learn about online safety, it limits free speech, and bullies online tend to be bullies offline. First, some students and parents feel as if having schools monitor students social media accounts isn’t allowing students to learn about online safety. Instead of monitoring student accounts and making students feel uncomfortable, schools should teach students
how to be safe online. In “Why Spying On Our Kids To Solve Cyberbullying Might Not Work”, it states that schools need to teach “how to recognize cyberbullying.” (Source 2). Teaching students how to be safe online and how to recognize these type of things will give students more confidence to stand up for themselves, thus helping with ending cyberbullying and maybe offline bullying as well. Schools want to monitor student accounts because it’s a way for the school to make sure their students are safe. By monitoring students accounts, it allows schools to prevent cyberbullying, but it doesn’t allow students to learn how to be safe online. It also doesn’t allow students to stand up for themselves. Also, students like to make jokes online that, to the school, might sound like cyberbullying or even an attempt or thought of self harm. Schools want to help

Turner 2 but if the information is wrong it could worsen the situation or they could wrongfully punish students.
Next, students feel as if having their school monitor their social media is limiting their free speech. Monitoring student accounts can limit free speech because students aren’t allowed to share and post what they feel. Knowing that your school is watching what you say and do on social media can be uncomfortable and can make you limit what you say and do. Some students feel uncomfortable having their school monitor their accounts. For example, Clarissa Rodriguez says “I don’t even like my parents looking through my feed, much less teachers or others at my school.” (Source 1). This shows that students don’t feel comfortable with this new policy that some schools are permitting. Schools say they will use this system not to limit what students say and think but to protect them. Monitoring student accounts allows schools to be aware of what their students are doing. Students use social media as a way to express feelings and their personal lives with friends and family. Having their school watch their accounts limits what they post and can be considered and invasion of privacy.
Finally, the main goal of this project is to stop and prevent cyberbullying but this project wont stop bullying from happening offline at school.
Bullying happens offline and online and it often extends beyond the schools. Schools want to monitor accounts in order to stop cyberbullying and prevent self harm but the problem is larger than online. Bullying has a large impact of students emotions and thoughts and can often lead to self harm, suicide, depression, anxiety, and a number of different things. If schools want to stop bullying they need to focus on more than social media. Monitoring social media accounts is only stopping cyberbullying, but what about bullying at school. While cyberbullying is “easier to commit, the kids who bully online also tend to bully at school.” (Source 3). To stop bullying online and offline, schools should invest
Turner 3 in a good guidance counselor who specializes in this area and can help students. Schools monitoring student accounts allows schools to have the power to stop cyberbullying but they can't stop there. Schools need to focus on the big picture of online and offline bullying. In conclusion, should not monitor student social media accounts. Even though the main goal of this project is to prevent self harm and cyberbullying, there is still a lot the schools are missing. Schools should not monitor student social media accounts because students should learn about online safety, it limits free speech, and it wouldn’t change the outcome of bullying online or at
school.