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AI Businesses Education Social Networks

1,100 Schools Now Scan Social Media For Violent Students - and Alcohol Use (usatoday.com) 115

Posted by EditorDavid from the not-saved-by-the-bell dept.
In the hunt for potential acts of student violence, "schools are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence-backed solutions," reports USA Today. Bark Technologies, Gaggle.Net, and Securly Inc. are three companies that employ AI and machine learning to scan student emails, texts, documents, and in some cases, social media activity. They look for warning signs of cyber bullying, sexting, drug and alcohol use, depression, and to flag students who may pose a violent risk not only to themselves, but classmates. When potential problems are found, and depending on the severity, school administrators, parents -- and under the most extreme cases -- law enforcement officials, are alerted. In the fall of 2017, Bark ran a test pilot with 25 schools. "We found some pretty alarming issues, including a bombing and school shooting threat," says Bark chief parent officer, Titania Jordan....

The Bark product [which monitors more than 25 social media platforms] is free to schools in the U.S. for perpetuity. The company says it can afford to give the service away to schools, because of the money it makes from a version aimed at parents... Bark is currently used in more than 1,100 school districts, covering 2.6 million children. If it detects something that is considered exceedingly severe such as a child abduction or school shooting threat, the issue is escalated to the FBI. According to Jordan, Bark sends out between 35,000 and 55,000 alerts each day, many just instances of profanity. But 16 plausible school shootings have been reported to the FBI since Bark launched its school product last February, she says.
The article notes these solutions have three major limitations:
  • "A school can't police a student's smartphone or other devices outside the ones it issued, unless the student signed into a social media, or other account, using the email or credentials the school provided."
  • "None of the companies USA TODAY talked to for this story claim the ability to catch suspect behavior every time."
  • "Students also are often more tech savvy than their parents and won't tell them about every account they have."

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1,100 Schools Now Scan Social Media For Violent Students - and Alcohol Use More

1,100 Schools Now Scan Social Media For Violent Students - and Alcohol Use

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  • Good! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Good!

    If only they had done this when I was a kid going to school in the Santa Clara county, maybe I would still have my upper teeth.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      if you were really bullied, they would just use this system now to get you expelled.

  • And this is a good idea, because? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Seriously, why is it good for the eventually-to-be-grownup pupil to get forced into reconciling themselves to a life of constant surveillance? Is that the message these schools want to convey? Because it's what they're doing.

    • Not good, but survival. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is the reality we are facing, lord knows we aren't gonna take away dangerous individuals rights to commit mass murder with guns.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      You know, they probably want to send that message. The US and much of the west is going into totalitarianism and fascism again (probably because it worked so well last time....). Preparing pupils for a society where they have no privacy and any "deviation" will be punished with extreme penalties might be doing pupils a favor.

    • Re: And this is a good idea, because? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Since we live now in the Surveillance Age and this fact is not going to change, the most sensible thing to do is to get the youth used to it as soon as possible. Watching one's own behavior, speech and manners is now an essential survival trait. The sooner you learn how to function within society, the better.

  • Why didn't they do something about it! (Score:5, Informative)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Sunday February 17, 2019 @03:46AM (#58133874) Homepage
    This is the logical end to those "why didn't they do something about it, all the warning signs were all over social media." Well, now they're doing something about it. They've started - and will never stop - surveillance of human activity for deviant behaviors. If you're thinking this is ripe for abuse by being the one able to define deviant behaviors, you're right. It's basically what happened to England in the plot of "1984". I hope you're happy and you got what you asked for.

    • Look, nobody's forcing him to brag online about his violent escapades, but the moment he chooses to do so, other people have the right to use that knowledge. This really has nothing with 1984, where people are forced to disclose their information by ever present eavesdropping.

      • unless the student signed into a social media, or other account, using the email or credentials the school provided

        Tell me. If you create a private social media account online using your work email address, do you expect your work to reset your password and access that private online account you created? No, right? At least, not unless that account was work related.

        If anyone should have access to that secondary account, it should be the parents, not the school.

        Remember that incident where the school would spy on their students using the camera of the school issued laptops while the kids were in the privacy of their own

        • If you create a private social media account online using your work email address

          Then you're (not you personally, but the one who does what you said) an idiot.

          School issued laptops

          Unless they're used for programming lessons, I don't understand why they are issued.

          Maybe I just don't understand modern education, what can I say.

          • Unless they're used for programming lessons, I don't understand why they are issued.

            Maybe I just don't understand modern education, what can I say.

            It has changed a ton in the last 10 years. A large percent of schools are issuing a portable device to every student. Google Apps for Education is a big deal, with tons of Chromebooks being issued to kids. Work is done using the Google suite of word processing tools, rather than the Microsoft ones. Kids are turning in video homework rather than paper homework. It's a crazy new world out there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      Everyone is already happy, and for that, You can thank Big Brother for
        announcing the chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams per week!

    • They've started - and will never stop - surveillance of human activity for deviant behaviors.

      Monitoring social media hardly constitutes "surveillance of human activity" because is centralized repository where fools volunteer information to corporations. Corporations are under no obligation to keep any secrets you have and if you're actively broadcasting to the world what you are doing then it's certainly not a secret.

    • Uh... so maybe don't post your crap on social media?

      If you put things on servers you don't control, expect it to be seen by others...

  • They Automated Carl! (Score:3)

    by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Sunday February 17, 2019 @04:00AM (#58133898) Homepage

    "ou guys think I'm just some untouchable peasant? Peon? Huh? Maybe so, but following a broom around after shitheads like you for the past eight years I've learned a couple of things. I look through your letters, I look through your lockers. I listen to your conversations. You don't know that, but I do. I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends. By the way, that clock's twenty minutes fast!"

  • Next steps (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kaur ( 1948056 ) on Sunday February 17, 2019 @05:07AM (#58134004)

    1) Students will shift away from public media / platforms to new semi-private networks
    2) OSINT surveillance services try to follow, but are blocked by privacy rules
    3) Surveillance tries legal hacks to get backdoor access to networks and students' media

    We will have a society where everyone is aware of someone listening in and potentiall taking action.

    I have lived through the Soviet times in ex-USSR. We have been there and this is not nice.

    I also have three kids (two teenagers and one younger). I strongly believe they should have options for privacy both from us the parents, the school and authorities.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Wise words. Unfortunately, the authoritarian scum that forms 30% or so of the population cannot abide anybody doing something they cannot see. To them, Fascism is an ideal that they try to establish again.

    • "Students will shift away from public media / platforms to new semi-private networks"
      They're already doing that. Facebook is becoming like Myspace and Livejournal before it: a place for the old people, uncool if you're young.
      They'll go talk to each other in threads on 4chan, or in Discord chats, or whatever. When the next cool, hip new 'social media' comes around, they'll be first on the scene.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Or, alternatively, the students might band together and start taking pictures of things that would set off the authorities en masse.

      Snorting sugar on the cafeteria table with a straw and posting to their school accounts with #boogersugar.
      Passing around a bottle of skol filled with water, everyone takes a drink. #Vodka #SoDrunkRightNow
      Having a full day of sexting everyone and everything. "HEY BEBE, YOU WANNA MONKEH AROUND!"

      And do not even get me started with where Deepfakes are going. You can remix a teac

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Judged by an algorithm, that may have applied some hidden bias and/or might simply be wrong. So you get called into the principal's office about your booze problem, or a copper pays you a visit to talk about your latent violence issues, and then it's on you to explain to them and your parents that they are wrong.

      Something similar happened here: a couple of mayors wanted to nip mounting resistance against new refugee centers in the bud, and decided to visit the most vocal opponents. One guy was visited at

  • You know, so they can see if the teachers/school administration has had any DUI, domestic abuse calls, etc?

    Oh, that's right. If you're under eighteen you have no legal right to know this information.

    ---

    And as for turning on the camera of student issued laptops to check up on them, let me guess...

    30 seconds to check to see if the quarterback is saying a racial slur.
    5 minutes to see if the head cheerleader is drinking during a sleepover.

  • Happy To Not Do This To My Children (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm perfectly happy to NOT subject my children to this surveillance.

    Fuck Bark and the horse they rode in on!

  • The Bark product is free to schools in the U.S. for perpetuity. The company says it can afford to give the service away to schools, because of the money it makes from a version aimed at parents.

    It would be more accurate and honest to say that the Bark product being used by schools is a business-critical marketing device to gain leverage over parents and “convince” them that they’d better pony up the 9 USD per month. Because, you know, it would be too bad if their child’s school found out whatever could be out there in the cloud, and proceeded to initiate some reprisal or even call the police on their beloved little one.

  • Stop using all social media that can be tracked.
    Don't get your image uploaded to any social media service.
    Dont use names, words, jargon, locations that will induce tracking online.
    Have an online computer for work, study, education. Have a VPN computer for computer games, searching.
    Need social media for some project? Set up an account with the min information just for that. Never use it again.
    Enjoy your freedoms like past generations did.

    Be aware of how many jobs, other nations, gov, mil, service

  • https://www.sun-sentinel.com/l... [sun-sentinel.com]
    https://www.asumag.com/safety-... [asumag.com]

    Florida school officials and law enforcement had more than enough data to stop Nicholas Cruz.

    Technology and good intentions are no match for incompetent and corrupt government officials.

  • Social cooling [socialcooling.com].

    People are starting to realize that this 'digital reputation' could limit their opportunities.

    Look: Remember the very first porn sites way back in the 90s? We clicked to see titties and then a question popped up: "Are you over 18 or over?"

    - Yes
    - No

    We clicked, "No," and went to Disney.

    Having IQs higher than asphalt, we made another run at it and gave the answer that fit our needs.

    Few on /. are unaware of behavioural modification techniques.

    People are slowly learning to shape their narrative on social media to avoid pain and gain favour.

  • The AI would simply generate a report inquiring how it's even possible for a human to post THAT MANY MEMES. It just doesn't seem possible.

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