UDL Principles: Big IQ Kids (Providing options for language, expressions and symbols)

Privacy Laws: CIPA/COPPA

When it comes to the internet, it can be a great resource but also a great threat, especially to our young people. Consequently, there are laws enacted to help protect youth from online harm. Two of these privacy laws include COPPA and CIPA. Enacted in 1998, COPPA is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that has web sites require permission from parents for individuals 13 and under to share personal information (Cobb County School District). For example, to open an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Kik, and Snapchat an individual must be 13 (Nominet: The Social Age Study). This law is in place because the personal information of those 13 and under needs to be protected so they are not naively giving out their information on strange websites or social media without parent consent; however, many kids can lie about their age to still create an account. Statistics estimate that approximately 59% of children have already used a social network by the time they are 10, and that Facebook has the most users under the age of 13 (Nominet: The Social Age Study). In fact, “52 per cent of 8 to 16-year-olds admit they ignore Facebook’s age restriction” (Nominet: The Social Age Study). Lastly, COPPA tries to make sure that websites requiring information from children can be viewed by the parent and informs them who else can view the information.

CIPA is the Children’s Internet Protection Act which was put into effect in 2001 (Cobb County School District). This law is in place to put restrictions on public and school libraries to ensure they have a policy of Internet safety for minors. Moreover, CIPA calls for blocks and filters on any web sites that may be inappropriate or harmful to students. If a public school or library does not follow the CIPA regulations, their funding will not be provided (Cobb County School District). The rationale for this law resides in the fact that students and minors should not have access to potentially explicit internet content in a public place such as a library or school where they should be safe from threats, including online threats. Researchers have suggested that the average age at which children have first viewed some sort of pornography is eight years old, largely due to the widely available internet access (Focus on the Family).

Consequently, as teachers we need to be aware of these privacy policies and the discussed rationale providing explanations for their enactment. As educators in the digital age, we need to do our research to make sure that the online resources we are going to use in our classroom are age appropriate and abides these laws and parent consent. For example, a potential teaching resource I could use in my future classroom would be Quizlet. Quizlet allows users under 13 to sign up but they have special restrictions for that student such as requiring a parent email address. However, as the teacher I can create an account and set up classrooms and play Quizlet Live with students, which is a great study resource. This is great for schools with one to one technology. Also, Discovery Education is a great free online resource for science teachers like myself to use because they can find STEM based lesson plans to use in the classroom. I also would want to take it upon myself as a teacher to educate my students about the potential threats of the online world and how to also be a responsible internet user. There are a lot of resources online of informational videos I can use to talk to my students about CIPA and COPPA such as tes teach that has a whole slide share set up with presentations and videos for both students and teachers describing the laws.  

References:

Cobb County School District: http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/instructionaltechnology/IL/Web2_0/cipa_coppa_overview.pdf

Nominet: The Social Age Study

http://www.nominet.uk/kids-not-equipped-for-coming-of-digital-age/

Focus on the Family: When Children View Pornography http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/sexuality/when-children-use-pornography/when-children-view-pornography