As a father of two young daughters, "School Monitoring Social Media: Where Should the Line Be?" this question makes me think a lot, because I want my daughters to grow up with guidance but I also want them to grow up with privacy. Because of this, I do not think schools should have the authority to monitor the social media accounts of teachers and the students.
I understand why some parents will support this kind of ideas. Because it may prevent many events such as student being bullied online, stop a student who is trying to hurt themselves or someone else, or a student making life threats to other people. A school should not ignore such activities. The same thing applies for a teacher if they are posting hateful or unethical content in public then parents have every right to be concerned. As children learn from elder people, the teachers play a vital role in their life. As they spend many hours at school so teachers should be a role model for them.
However, I believe schools should not act like they have control over everything. Because it can create fear and this is not a good thing for a school or the teachers and students. I often imagine my daughters growing older and becoming active on social media. I want them to be social and do whatever they like. Like many other children who has the right. They might make a mistake and later regret it. I would want them to share their problems with me and I would gladly help them. I would not want them to live with the feeling that someone at school is checking everything they do online and later get schooled for it. These kind of actions can make them hide their true feelings instead of asking for help. As a father, I want my home to be the first place they turn to when something goes wrong.
I also believe it's parents responsibility to monitor their children's activity and schools cannot replace that. Firstly, it is our job to teach our children how to use social media, that how they should never misbehave online just because someone else won't be able to do anything. That how they should treat strangers with respect and think wisely before posting. Schools can support parents by teaching students about the mannerism when they go online but school should never become online police.
If a student posts something that they shouldn't which can affect the schools reputation, then the school should step in. But outside of those serious cases, a person's online life should remain their own and no one should try to take control over it. No one should be able to tell us what should we post and what not. Because we have the right , we have freedom of speech and freedom to do anything if it is not harming anybody.
In my opinion, having privacy is very important and no one should ever have the permission to invade our privacy. It is the greatest lessons adults can teach children. Children's can not learn if they are always being monitored, they learn the best when they feel supported.
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