New Law – Schools Can Demand Students Social Media Passwords

New big-brother law gives schools in Illinois the powers to demand social media passwords from its students

The law it aimed at curbing cyber-bullying, but some say the law is draconian and could be abused.

Schools in Illinois sent parents letters to notify them on the new rules:

“To get into a social networking site and it could be at a school or at home. That we would be able to get that password and get onto their account.”

The new law says that if a school has a reasonable cause to believe that a student’s account on a social network contains evidence that it has broken a school rule, even out of school hours, they can request that students password.

Parents and students, however, are concerned about privacy rights being violated with the new rules. “It’s one thing for me to take my child’s social media account and open it up, or for the teacher to look or even a child to pull up their social media account, but to have to hand over your password and personal information is not acceptable to me”, said one parent.

Fox2now.com reports:

Some students say there still needs to be some separation between schools and what students d on their own time and personal device. “I think it’s an invasion of privacy to the extent that if a student wishes to share something with a university it should be to their discretion,” said Nathan Sterling.

While other students say the new law sends a strong message that threats and cyber-bullying will not be tolerated . “I believe it’s a good law because help stop bullying rasing awareness .Stopping kids that have been bullied or will get bullied in the future, ” said Keanna Williams.

The new law went into effect January 1, 2015.