School Used Laptop Webcams to View Students

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Just saw this on reddit today and it seems to be a real interesting situation to say the least.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

The site I linked to isn't really a news outlet, but it was the first I saw with the information, so I hope you can forgive that.

The school is in hot water for obvious reasons, but there are also some intriguing situations in this. Knowing how often people just have their laptops open in their room can the school get sued for child pornography or something similar if they tapped into the stream while someone was changing (accidentally or not, they are already trespassing).

What do you guys think of this situation? I'm really just curious to see what people have to say about it.

Edit: Can an admin capitalize the title? It's really annoying me

 

That's just plain creepy. I'm almost tempted to throw away my webcam now.

 

Not just creepy. It is likely illegal as well.

 

Whatever administrator authorized this should be fired on the spot for such a blatantly wrong policy. At the very, very least they should be fired for not running this idea by a lawyer before implementing it as I just cannot imagine ANY lawyer saying that doing this would be legal or wouldn't get the school in some serious legal troubles.

 

I wonder if it was something they found out later -- after the computers were bought and distributed - -you know, some support staff sorting e-mailed assignments and saying "holy crap, with our Admin functions, we can remotely operate the students' webcams!" and then it just going from there.

If such were the case, then an Administrator should have

A: Immediately forbade the use of that function.
B: Immediately called in a tech wizard to disable that function.

If they did this with mailce aforethought, without telling the parents or kids, then there should be mass firings all around.

If, however, they did it with the knowledge of the parents, then the kids are poop outta luck, as IMHO as long as parents consent to something the kids have no recourse in terms of privacy -- ie, a parent could place a camera in a teen girls' room to see if the little slut is sneaking boys into the room at night.*

I'm not saying this is good parenting, but I am saying it is legal parenting. Or it should be, anyhow

 

A parent hiding a camera into a teen girls room -- where she undresses -- would be guilty of creating child pornography and prosecuted as such. We had a similar case here a few years ago....

 

If the camera were aimed at the window, designed only to see who enters via that route, would not make child pornography.

 

...the reflection in the window....

Were you never a teenage boy? Do we need to teach you all the tricks?

 

I was a teenage boy with a father who would have beaten the living <SNIP> out of me!

Note that I'm not saying that this is good parenting. But parents have a right to keep tabs on their kids -- I think that we put too much emphasis on "privacy".

 

So you would be happy if a school lent you a laptop and then used it to watch you while you were at home where they have no right or business to intrude?

This isn't like some CCTV in a public street, this is spying in someones' home for no reason other than they can. It is illegal, plain and simple, at least in the UK. Aside from that it is, as the article stated, plain creepy.

As a child or a parent of a child given this laptop, I would be furious and demand the removal of all footage drawn from it. If nothing else it's dangerous what the school could take stills - out of context - and most likely without recorded sound to construe whatever they damn well wanted.

Punishing a child for something he is doing in his own home because of webcam footage is simply ridiculous. There should be perhaps monitoring software to record web traffic and access if the laptops are provided purely for academic use. Then he could be in trouble for misuse of school property - as it is the school is simply in the wrong - a webcam cannot prove what the laptop is being used for, just what the users are doing while or while not they are at the keyboard.

 

how did they think they would get away with this?

everyone with a webcam on their lap top are actively putting insulation tape across the lense at this very moment

 

I think Ragusa was being nice by saying this is "likely illegal". I'd go a step further and say that it is definitely illegal. People get undressed in their bedrooms. It's about as blantant an invasion of privacy as you can get, especially since the kids evidently had no idea the school could do this.

To put it as bluntly as possible, the school board is f'ed as is anyone who approved the issuance of these laptaps with the knowledge that this could be done. If this actually does to court - and I cannot imagine it isn't settled out of court - the school board will lose spectacularly. I wonder what the "inappropriate behavior" was that they discovered?

 

Lower Merion hunh? That's Kobe Bryant's home town. A very high end school district. There will be some big payoffs to the parents on this one. Imagine if you wre an 18 year-old senior. You would get the money, not your parents. Cha-ching!

 

Why are schools giving out laptops anyway? cant people use their brains anymore?

 

I know at university they are supplied to students who require specialist software because of personal needs.

At secondary school they would sometimes lend out laptops for licensed software use for coursework or on a pre-arrangement with the school administrator for a specific task. Especially a research project over Summer if the student had no computer or internet at home.

Or sometimes there are budgets set aside with specific criteria that cannot be spent on anything else other than what is stipulated. Is why my school got shiny new screens around the buildings to inform students of upcoming events, but not enough money to help repair some of the flood damage or repair the pavements and bike racks.

 

This was just plain stupid, by whoever came up with the idea. I hope they suppoena all the recorded footage and, if a single student is seen even in their underwear, charge the people behind it with voyerism and possibly producing child pornography. This was Grade-A, top of the line, cutting edge idiocy here, and heads need to roll one way or another (i.e. civil or criminal court).

Edit: in an update on that sight, the school admits that the computers were shipped with the software to do this, but denied wrongdoing. That sounds to me like they're going to fight this. Maybe the lawyers were included in the Grade-A stupidity?

 

I can't see how they'd possibly win. I see a mea culpa in the near future, complete with the standard "uh, we made a mistake, a temporary error in judgement, and now we of course see that it was wrong. Please forgive us!"

 

That makes it even worse, as it suggests using the computers for this purpose was intentional and pre-meditated. I agree that it sounds like they're going to fight this. I cannot imagine they'd win.

 

Oh man, i'd love to see a lawyer try to defend them. Phoenix Wright couldn't do it.

 

I also hope that some court subpoenas the footage.

I should say though that I'm wary of school districts getting big money judgements levied against them, because school districts are not some corporation or even an individual with big pockets. They're "us"... they're just a part of the local government, and hence, the residents of the town. So, if a big judgement is levied, it's only hurting the residents of the town.

I'd rather see criminal charges brought against those responsible for any criminal behavior.

I can't see how the school could be so stupid to not first speak to their lawyers about the legality of this before allowing the computers to be lent out. If I was the mayor of this town, I'd fire whoever authorized this in a heartbeat for (at least) a couple of reasons. 1. For not checking with the lawyers first. 2. Because I could not trust anyone whose judgement was so flawed to think that this would be appropriate.