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Should schools monitor student internet activity?

February 3, 10:18 AMEducation ExaminerDonna Gundle-Krieg
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Many schools offer internet access for students, and parents and educators are rightfully concerned about students using the internet properly.

Therefore, school districts are now using programs that will monitor student internet activity.
 
 
 
A recent survey found that those school districts that use these "internet spy" programs found “more” or “far more” abuse than they expected.
 
Programs such as SpectorSoft send parents and educators a report of Web sites visited, emails sent and received, chats and instant messages, keystrokes typed, files transferred, documents printed and applications run.
 
The reports give educators insights about the following:
·         Which students or classes are spending the most time on personal web surfing?
·         Which students may be installing potentially dangerous or illegal files on your PCs or network using USB Drives, CDs, email or peer-to-peer web sites?
·         Which students chat or use anonymous email services like Hotmail and Gmail?
·         How are students bypassing your filters by using proxy servers?
·         Who is downloading music, games, or other large files?
 
Parents such as myself use this software at home, and even businesses will buy programs to spy on their employees’ internet activity.
 
 
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