Republican lawmakers are proposing blocking kids from accessing social media in schools that receive federal broadband subsidies.
TBH, I’m not generally opposed to this idea. Social media consumption has a lot of negative consequences, and we could all do with a little less in our lives. However, given the source, I don’t trust Republicans to be making these demands in good faith.
What’s going to be funny, though, is the number of tech-saavy kids who know how VPNs work. 🍿
The question is whether they will be blocked on school WiFi, or via software on the students’ take home laptops that some schools do. If it’s blocked on the WiFi, the tech savvy kids won’t even need a VPN to get around it. If they have a phone, they can tether it and use their phone’s internet plan instead of the school WiFi. Most android phones have this as a feature.
Y’all know about 5G, right?
We already block social media at a lot of schools. Doesn’t do shit when all you need to do is disconnect from the schools wifi to see what you want…
In before they address this and propose tracking each student’s phone to see if they are in a school zone (and of course to see much more).
School would have to provide the phones, not even close to within our budget
Not unless we had a large cohort of people doing everything in their power to undermine our freedom and privacy.
That would be impossible to do without impacting the ability of neighboring homes to access the internet as well. It’s not like the signals magically stop at the school parking lot.
Kids are suspended if caught with a cellphone on school property in our district.
I’m sure glad that isn’t true in mine. My daughter called me today to tell me she was really sick and the nurse wasn’t going to send her home. I knew my wife has been really sick and so I knew she needed to go to the doctor. I wouldn’t have even heard about it until after she got home from school if she didn’t have a phone.
This varies greatly from district to district. I know of plenty of schools that do the same. But I also know school districts (and luckily live in one) where this would never fly. They tried doing this during my daughter’s sophomore year of high school, and the parents all said “Oh, fucking no. If I want to be able to get in touch with my kid, I’ll make that decision, not you.”
I also know of districts that tried this and just abandoned the idea because it was nigh-on impossible to enforce without suspending like 90% of the kids.
I also know of districts that tried this and just abandoned the idea because it was nigh-on impossible to enforce without suspending like 90% of the kids.
That is what is happening. They suspended the Senior class president who was caught with a phone because they were waiting on a college scholarship call.
How did they get the ok for that? Kids with cell phones can help in active shooter situations so to remove a tool that potentially could save a lot of lives seems crazy
Honestly, I’m generally okay with this. As long as they don’t push some other agenda along with it.
Social media is, generally, toxic. There are areas that are not but the algos most commercial social media outlets use for engagement are just bad for everyone.
Cutting kids off from social media is all about cutting them off from outside information and support. We desperately need a bill of rights for kids, it’s tragic how many people are fine with treating them like property.
Many abusive parents already control all of their kids’ time outside of school, and for some, the only place to find understanding & support is in forums like r/raisedbynarcissists or LGBT spaces.
Like adults, kids are informed by social media, and if we want to improve their mental health we need to actually address the problems they learn about there, instead of simply preventing them from learning about the real world.
Things like our unwavering march toward an unlivable climate, the malign growth of oppressive, theocratic, authoritarian movements in many governments around the world, the crushing inequitable grind of capitalist culture, or just the ignorant / abusive / bigoted mindset of many fellow citizens are all bad for anyone’s mental health, but they need to be understood accurately to be addressed.
Social media has legitimate research potential. This doesn’t stop any kid from doing what they’re already doing: using social media on their cell phone with cellular data.
I worry that a bill like this will have riders attached that would change scope drastically. I honestly think in this case it should be up to the school district to self regulate and let the local communities decide what is right in their districts.
(kicks rocks) I’m gonna have to agree with the Republicans.
