School Districts Monitor Bullying On Social Networks @McAfee

Right now, I want to get over to Brett. All right, Gene, thank you. Bullying in schools has become a serious and sometimes deadly situation. And now with more and more students on social media and carrying mobile devices, cyberbullying is growing. So should schools police their students' social media accounts? Joining us from our Beacon Hill studio is Robert Siciliano, a McAfee online security expert. Robert, good morning, thanks for joining us.

Good morning.

Let's talk about this school district in California because they implemented this social media monitoring system after the recent suicide of a 12-year-old who was taunted on social media. So how prevalent are these types of programs across the country?

Well, more and more school districts are, uh, getting involved in what's called social intelligence analytics. Uh, this is when they sub out to third-party contractors the ability to look at all the students' profiles. They are searching different keywords, looking for certain behaviors. Generally for 13 years and older. And when they see red flags, uh, things that are out of place, things that would, uh, uh, make, uh, parents, uh, blush, so to speak, uh, they, um, bring it to the attention of the district and to the students. And they're essentially regulating what's being said and what's not said, what's okay, what's not okay.

And that regulation comes at a cost. They're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 to do this for 9,000 students. That are in that district. So how successful can they be? And, and you kind of alluded to this, but how do they intervene once they deem a comment a red flag?

So the, um, students themselves, uh, recognize that they're being monitored. They're told that they're being monitored. So to some degree, they're gonna change their behavior just a little bit. McAfee did a study not too long ago and determined that more than 50% of students are, are, are 13 to 17-year-olds would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching, which is a really good sign. So if the school district is watching, we can kind of equate that stat to that as well. Uh, the fact of the matter is the parents don't know enough about their child's online behaviors, their interactions, what they're saying, who they're saying it to, uh, and the school district is stepping in and in some ways doing the parents' job. However, parents need to realize that, you know, it does end up as their responsibility, and they have, you know, a huge interest as to the success of their child based on their online digital lives.

And let's stay with those parents because some of them are on the opposite end of this controversy— excuse me, opposite end of the criticism here, saying that it's an invasion of privacy into the personal accounts. How much of an argument do they and the students have here?

Yeah, you know, I'm gonna take some heat for this, but as far as your 13 to 17-year-olds, privacy is overrated. Okay? You know, you have kids that are killing themselves as a result of cyberbullying. Kids, you know, telling one kid to the other, you know, "When are you gonna die?" Kids can be mean. We've all been there. And they need to be watched. They need to be monitored. The Internet can be a dangerous place for kids. You know, they just say what's in their mind. There's no filter. They don't see the facial expressions on the kid when they say it to them, so it doesn't feel like much. And they can say and do anything as they please with little repercussion. But we're seeing that, you know, there are huge repercussions when kids are affected by this.

Do you see this program, a type of this type of program, coming to Massachusetts?

You know, it's tough, uh, in a state like this. Who knows? Um, do I think it's a good idea? Yes. You know, every bit of monitoring we can do on our child's behaviors, you know, insight into their minds and and what they say and what they do, all the better. You know, they— kids need to be monitored. You know, you know your kids are up to no good at some given point in time, and so the more you know about their behaviors, what they're saying, what they're doing, and so forth, the better off they will be. You know, they're not capable of navigating the world on their own. That's why we are parenting them. So if— whether the school's doing it or the parents are doing it, you know, more oversight, the better.

All right, Robert Siciliano, we appreciate the time this morning. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

And we got to take a break here in the Fox 25 Morning News, but a lot more coming your way when we come back.