Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids

EFF’s "Spying on Students" Report Highlights Tech Companies’ Data

San Francisco—School children are being spied on by tech companies through devices and software used in classrooms that often collect and store kids’ names, birth dates, browsing histories, location

Home | Protecting Kids Online

Our mission is to protect children and defend parental rights by equipping families and citizens with the tools to keep kids safe online. We oppose government surveillance disguised as child safety legislation and seek to build an informed, independent parent-led coalition to #ProtectKidsOnline.

The big biz of spying on little kids

There are gaping holes in children’s privacy protection.

Why Protecting Kids from Social Media May Make Things Worse — Douglas Rushkoff

I’m supposed to give a talk next week about kids and social media and the need for more media literacy education, more regulation of platforms, and more substantive discussion about how to keep our kids from media-induced self-harm. The whole event is well-meaning, but is characterized by a sense of worry and protection. And for some reason, after years of making those sorts of arguments in my articles and documentaries, I have a strong impulse to pivot the other way.

U.S. Social Media Regulations for Minors

The digital lives of American children and teenagers have become a focal point of intense national debate and legislative action. ContentsThe Federal Foundation: The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)The State-Level Surge: A Patchwork of New RulesThe Next Generation of Federal Law: Congress Weighs InThe Constitutional Crossroads: Free Speech vs. State RegulationThe Great Debate: Voices […]

Chat Control & Going Dark: The war on encryption is on the rise. Through a shady collaboration between the US and the EU.

After Snowden’s whistleblowing in 2013, large parts of the internet became encrypted, enabling private and secure communication. Not everyone has welcomed this change. Most notably, the FBI and other U.S. government agencies have fought what is often called the “crypto wars”, the war on encryption. In recent years, they have been joined by the European Commission. Under the slogan “what about the children,” they try to introduce total mass surveillance of all EU citizens — first through the proposed Chat Control legislation, and later via the Going Dark and ProtectEU initiatives. The goal is to legally mandate spy tools on every European smartphone and computer. The forces behind these efforts have turned out to be American tech companies and intelligence agencies.

The Future of Children’s Programming After Federal Cuts to Public Media

The nation needs a strategy for children’s media that draws from the trusted legacy of public media and leverages today’s most promising tech tools.

The Kids Online Safety Act Will Make the Internet Worse for Everyone

Lawmakers who support KOSA today are choosing to trust the current administration, and future administrations, to define what youth—and to some degree, all of us—should be allowed to read online.

What happened to the fight for the Internet? -- Dustycloud Brainstorms

At the moment I am writing this, bad internet bills are being proposed across the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK. They're using the usual tactics: they claim they're fighting for kids or fighting security risks, but in general, that's what surveillance and censorship bills have always claimed.

"The S is for surveillance": fighting KOSA and bad internet bills in the ATmosphere and the fediverses

Part 2 of The Time Is Right: shifting from theory to practice.

Phone-Free Schools Movement | Protecting Student Well-Being

Join the Phone-Free Schools Movement to create healthier, more focused school days. We help schools implement bell-to-bell phone-free policies that boost learning, safety, and student well-being.

Fixing Education with Big Data: Turning Teachers into Data Scientists?

education (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee) Rip Empson reported earlier this week from TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco that Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York Public Schools, insists that “when it comes to the intersection of education and technology, simply putting a computer in front of a student, of a child, doesn’t [...]

Use of technology in classrooms has been a disaster for students [column]

Schools and other educational facilities should reduce their use of technology in the classroom. According to a 2021 paper published by Northwestern College, tech in schools has led to increased

How Big Tech Captured American Schools

Companies like Google and Microsoft have used their money, their might and their massive reach to influence nearly every step of the education supply chain.

'Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs:' Inside an AI-Powered Private School

Leaked documents reveal the inner workings of Alpha School, which both the press and the Trump administration have applauded. The documents show Alpha School's AI is generating faulty lessons that sometimes do "more harm than good."