S.T.O.P. Report Shows Psychological Surveillance Harms K-12 Students

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For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Report Shows Psychological Surveillance Harms K-12 Students (New York, NY 12/14/23) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, released Orwell’s Classroom: Psychological Surveillance in K-12 Schools, a report detailing safety monitoring systems in schools and the effect they have on students’ mental health. Along with being ineffective, constant surveillance of students’ online activity often degrades classroom relationships and endangers BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. The state of American children’s mental health constitutes a public health crisis, and costly surveillance technologies show little evidence of reversing that. The report calls for the elimination of psychological surveillance in schools and the reinstatement of evidence-based mental health screenings, treatment, and support. SEE: S.T.O.P. Report - Orwell’s Classroom: Psychological Surveillance in K-12 Schools https://www.stopspying.org/orwells-classroom "Schools should develop measures to meet the growing mental health needs of today’s youth,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Advocacy & Communications Associate Sarah Roth. “However, psychological surveillance tools are not the solutions that developers and some school officials believe them to be. Grounded in pseudo-science and faulty algorithms, this invasive technology frequently and discriminately flags students’ innocuous searches and expressions as causes for concern. Even if biometric threat detectors and computing activity monitoring systems were 100% accurate, their installation in schools would still be ultimately incompatible with the aim of improving student mental health – further alienating struggling students by treating them with suspicion over care and subjecting them to caustic and abrupt interventions that feel more like punishments." Key Findings Include: Schools increasingly turn to spyware, noise detectors, and other invasive mental health prediction tools, with predictably poor results; These error-prone systems flag non-existent crises and miss real dangers; Mental health surveillance alienates students, making it more likely that they will self-censor and isolating them from teachers and online mental health resources; Student spyware routinely outs LGBTQ+ students and puts BIPOC youth at risk of police encounters; New tech appears to be displacing evidence-based mental health screening. SEE: Mad In America - Students Don’t Need Spying, They Need Trust https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/10/students-dont-need-spying-they-need-trust/ In September, S.T.O.P. released The Kids Won’t Be Alright: The Looming Threat of Child Surveillance Laws, detailing the threat that age-verification laws on the internet pose to children’s safety and privacy. Less than two weeks after the release of the report, S.T.O.P. expressed concern over newly proposed NY social media legislation which incorporated the use of age verification technology. SEE: S.T.O.P. Report - The Kids Won’t Be Alright: The Looming Threat of Child Surveillance Laws https://www.stopspying.org/child-surveillance Press Release - S.T.O.P. Concerned Over NY Social Media Legislation, Warns ‘Age Verification Doesn’t Work’ https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/10/11/stop-concerned-over-ny-social-media-legislation-warns-age-verification-doesnt-work The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color. --END-- CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. Copyright © 2021 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved.