Students and Social Media
Students and Social Media
Recently, more and more stories have been coming to light regarding students being punished for their actions on social media. In the Philippines, a student was recently banned from her Catholic high school graduation ceremony because of a picture of her that was posted on her Facebook page; in the UK, a university student was suspended and sentenced to jail for 56 days because of derogatory remarks he made on Twitter; in Brooklyn N.Y., a Jewish high school is threatening all students who use Facebook—even on their own time, with expulsion unless they delete their accounts and pay the school a $100 fine.
Amidst these controversies, we are faced with the growing question of exactly what rights students have and ought to have in the context of social media. Schools of course have a right to demand that students adhere to certain rules within school hours and upon school grounds; but when students are on their own time do they not have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression? And if we are to tell them that they cannot freely express themselves on social media, that they must censor themselves all day, every day; how can we justify that and still claim that we allow students the right to freedom of speech?
As the influence of social media grows, cases similar to the aforementioned examples noted above are only going to increase, and students from kindergarten to university may be forced to choose between two conflicting sets of rights: the right to education and the right to free expression. With this in mind, the time has come to have a serious discussion about students and their social media rights. As we move forward, it is important that we work towards both protecting student rights, and setting clear boundaries for what is and is not ok to ensure that students do not inadvertently get themselves expelled, fined, or even sent to jail.
What do you think? And what criteria would you use to determine the amount of influence that schools may have over their students’ online behavior?
It’s time for students to have an official social media bill of rights.
This post uses information from:
http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/racist-twitter-user-jailed/
Read MoreTutorBright Appears on CityTV’s Breakfast Television.
TutorBright Appears on CityTV’s Breakfast Television
On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, TutorBright’s founder/CEO Sunny Verma appeared on CityTV’s Breakfast Television to speak about Social Media in Education.
Watch the video here.
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