Top Priorities for Student Image Privacy

Key points:

In places like Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, strict laws are already in place to restrict the collection of personal data and the distribution of digital content involving students, to respect the privacy of those students and protect them from harm. But in the United States? To a large extent, it remains a pitched battle. Every year, American schools capture and post millions of images of students online, many of which contain personally identifiable information. This exposes children to serious risks, including grooming, bullying, ai voice cloning, deepfakes, and identity theft.

However, new legislation require greater security on social media platforms, as well as demands against social media platforms by parents and school districts, a sign that Americans now understand and are mobilizing against the threats that digital environments pose to their children. For school districts, the message is clear: Make changes now or be swept up in the backlash.

There are three main areas that educators should focus on as they work to protect students' image privacy:

Infrastructure

Until a secure infrastructure is in place to collect, organize, protect and share digital content to ensure that digital media is processed in a way that complies with data protection law, nothing can be done on other fronts. The technologies that school districts adopt for this purpose must be airtight, easy to use, and offer parents or guardians full control over the content that is shared.

At least the following characteristics must be considered:

• Central, secure file storage to ensure better indexing and organization, and to prevent access by unauthorized parties.
• Direct upload capability, so no copies of files are inadvertently made to personal devices that could reach the Internet.
• The collection and management of school media to help schools gain real-time exposure, transparency and control over school media sharing practices, as well as to help schools manage photo consent from parents/legal guardians.
• Automatic exclusion of non-publishable content, to streamline security processes and avoid human errors.
• A user-owned priority, allowing school districts to change platform settings based on their needs and preferences.
• Parental control over sharing: in a recent study survey Of American parents, 93 percent said they wanted to have control over their children's images, but 42 percent reported that a teacher or school had shared their child's image online without permission. This has to change.

Consent

It is important that children and young people feel happy about their achievements at school and that their parents have access to images of these special moments. This includes photographs and videos taken by teachers during school presentations and special events, or by staff and volunteers hosting events and activities outside of school. However, for this to be achieved safely for all students, appropriate safeguards must be implemented to also protect their privacy, especially that of high-risk children. Ensuring timely application of parental and student consent to share digital content is paramount in this digital age.

Digital media platforms can incorporate simple solutions to address many of the challenges schools face today. Real-time image consent forms, for example, give parents and/or students (depending on age) instant, automatic control over how the school captures and shares their content. These forms also allow them to view that content and flag any content they don't want to share publicly. Because people may feel differently about their privacy or personal circumstances change from year to year or moment to moment, a good media management platform should not only be secure, but also flexible, allowing users withdraw or grant their consent when they consider it appropriate. . Currently, this is not often the case: in the parent survey cited above, 82 percent of respondents said it is important for them to be able to update their consent easily, but only 41 percent reported that it is very easy for them to do so.

Ethical ai

Manually cataloging large amounts of digital content is a task that educators do not have time for, and yet it is their legal obligation to ensure that such content is managed efficiently and effectively to protect children. How do they quickly organize the tens to hundreds of thousands of photographs that schools already have on file and ensure they are handled ethically to protect student privacy? This is particularly important when it comes to at-risk students.

When combined with human supervision, studies show ai tools achieve faster and more accurate results than humans or ai alone.

Therefore, educators and administrators must feel empowered and confident to successfully take the helm of ai innovation and use it reliably and effectively. However, the ethical application of ai is only possible if a school partners with a trusted solutions provider that is capable of offering privacy-enhancing technology.

I consider the recent wave of concern in the United States over the insecurity of student content to be a step in the right direction. Until you recognize a problem, you can't begin to solve it. Although they may be further behind than they would prefer, school districts across the country have the opportunity to use innovative solutions to securely protect student photos and videos. It is imperative that schools act now to protect the privacy and well-being of students.