Illinois law allows schools to demand students’ Facebook passwords
Illinois schools can demand students’ social-media passwords under HB 4207.
If your child causes trouble – inside or outside of the school day – school administrators can demand his or her passwords to social-media accounts under a new Illinois law.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn signed HB 4207 in August 2014. The law’s stated purpose is to prevent cyberbullying, which often occurs outside of the classroom. However, perhaps blinded by good intentions, lawmakers who supported it completely disregarded legitimate privacy concerns of Illinois parents and students.
The new law is vague and primed for abuse, while also bucking a national trend toward preventing these types of practices. It went into effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Interestingly, as writer Jason Koebler noted in Motherboard, Illinois already bans schools from asking college students for their passwords.
The Illinois Principals Association released a model letter detailing the new law’s effects in practice. It states that school authorities can require a student, or his or her parent, to provide them with account information if they “have reasonable cause to believe that a student’s account on a social networking website contains evidence that a student has violated a school disciplinary rule or procedure.”
Administrators can demand – under threat of criminal charges – access to students’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other online accounts that may have been involved in a violation of school code. Whether these accounts were accessed or created during school hours or with school resources is of no consequence.
As Chris Matyszczyk put it at CNET, “Those of sharp eyes and, perhaps, parenting experience, will wonder just what private information the schools might encounter as they search for their alleged evidence.”
This type of legislative overreach is likely to be challenged in the courts.
Matyszczyk was wise to note a 2012 case wherein a Minnesota 12-year-old, Riley Stratton, sued her school district after she claimed she had been coerced into giving up her Facebook password. As part of a settlement in 2013, the school district paid $70,000 in damages and rewrote its privacy rules.
In the wake of the settlement, one attorney who helped lead Riley’s case was quoted as saying, “A lot of schools … think that just because it’s easier to know what kids are saying off campus through social media somehow means the rules have changed, and you can punish them for what they say off campus.”
Kade Crockford, director of Massachusetts’ American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, raised her concerns to Motherboard regarding Illinois’ new law.
“Anytime a school is trying to control students’ behavior outside school, it’s a serious threat to their privacy and to their futures,” she said.
“You have to think about the school-to-prison pipeline—who will be affected by this legislation, who will be arrested in school as a result of information discovered by administrators on their phones? … It’s kids of color, poor kids, kids with intellectual and learning disabilities. That’s what we see across the country.”
The ACLU is currently putting its weight behind legislation that would prevent polices like Illinois’ HB 4207 from becoming law in Massachusetts, according to Motherboard.
Illinois students and parents should hope such legislation sets a solid precedent. The discomforting law they now live under should be overturned.