CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE) — What safeguards are out there to keep students safe from cyberbullies and predators on school-issued laptops and online accounts and what can parents do?
Back to school means expanding young minds. But unfortunately, in today’s high-tech world, a return to the classroom can also bring stress. Thanks in part, to some of the very high-tech tools used to educate.
“Bullying has probably always existed since school has been around,” said Anderson County Schools Director of Technology Wade Haney. “Typically, when we were in school it was usually one class period, or just on the bus. When we went home, we were away from it. Now, because of social media, the bullying is 24/7.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 23% of teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel worse about their own life. About half of U.S. teens, 53%, say online harassment and online bullying are a major problem for people their age.
“That’s one of the reasons that it builds so much on our young people today, is that they don’t get away from that. And it just keeps growing and growing,” said Haney.
That’s why Anderson County and other districts are looking to technology to help parents and their children avoid the cyberbullies and predators that can not only limit a student’s success in the classroom, but in life. It’s called Gaggle. The program monitors students’ activity through their school accounts.
“It actually uses AI as the students create documents and create emails. If a student is worried about being bullied, if a student is worried about possibly committing suicide, it then triggers that email,” Haney said. “It actually goes up a chain to a person at Gaggle and they look at that with human eyes. 100%, we are not spying on people or our students, but it uses the AI portion to look for keywords. It looks for key phrases.”
If determined to be a legitimate concern, administrators are immediately notified.
“If a student decides they are being bullied or if a student is looking at that suicide note. If it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and that email or document is bounced up to Gaggle, they will call us in the middle of the night. The two phone calls that I have received in the middle of the night, both of those were possible suicides by students. And we got them to the right resources and those children are safe and alive today because of that,” Haney said.
According to Pew Research, 43% of teen boys and 49% of teen girls say they have been victims of cyberbullying. However, only 40% of victims, according to a study by security.org, said they reported it to their parents and 30% to their teachers.
“Lots of times parents are not sure what to look for. But that open communication with their child is what I would say is the key piece,” Haney said. “If you have that relationship built, then they’re going to hopefully listen a little bit better and they’re going to show you their phone.”
“Look through those messages. Look at what they’re sending to their friends. Check their photos out,” Haney said. “Those videos that they are creating. You can get some really good insight into what your child is going through.”
The objective is to put up as many safeguards as possible.
“You always hear the expression it takes a village to raise a child, that’s especially true I believe now,” Haney said.
He added that from their assessment, comparing pre-COVID and post-COVID, Anderson County Schools have received three to four times the incidents of kids needing help through Gaggle post-COVID.
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