Schools automatically scan students’ social media, every day

Schools automatically scan students’ social media, every day

Proponents claim they can detect misbehavior, threats – even shooting incidents – before they happen through automated scanning of student social media accounts.

Blake Prewitt, superintendent of Lakeview school district in Battle Creek, Michigan, says he typically wakes up each morning to twenty new emails from a social media monitoring system the district activated earlier this year. It uses keywords and machine learning algorithms to flag public posts on Twitter and other networks that contain language or images that may suggest conflict or violence, and tag or mention district schools or communities.

Source: Schools Are Mining Students’ Social Media Posts for Signs of Trouble | WIRED

Students in the district are not told their social media will be monitored and there is a false positive problem.

Our society seems to believe that everything will be better once everyone is under 24×7 surveillance. But will we be better for it?

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