Consider Student Consent Along With Parental Permission, Educators Say

“Young people are so conditioned to be okay with being exploited for profit in the social media sense, [that] when we talk about Ed Tech, we can't imagine that that principle doesn't translate as well, and that young people, even if they were given the choice -- without the information necessary to [give] consent -- would be just as inclined as their parents, or just as inclined to anyone who's not necessarily paying attention to just click ‘yes,’” said Ava Smithing, advocacy director at the Young People’s Alliance. “Their privacy has never been respected. So, they can't understand what it would look like to have their privacy respected."

Involving students in conversations about their privacy and consent “is the most important thing that we could do for young people,” said Smithing. “But before we can even start talking to them about privacy, we have to make sure they have an understanding of what privacy is,” because “privacy has never been an option for them. So for them to exercise their right to privacy, they have to know why it's valuable, and we have to be able to first make the connection for students [that] their data, their digital footprint is them online.”

While she acknowledged this can be hard, the road to success is for young people to initiate the conversation. “There are always going to be young people in these schools who are naturally more inclined to have these conversations and who are natural leaders ... [and] want to lead these conversations,” Smithing said. “You have to empower them to do that leading, as opposed to just picking random students, bringing them into a room and saying, ‘Okay, tell us what you think.’"

Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director at The School Superintendents Association (AASA), said involving students in the conversation is important because “people buy into that which they help create.” If involvement in the creation isn’t possible, then being immersed in the decision is the next best thing, she said.

Imani Goffney, math educator at the University of Maryland, gave a real-world example of this with a project she worked on as a researcher. “One of the things that our project decided to do was say ... we wanted parental consent,” she said. “We would always opt in. But we also wanted student consent, no matter how old they were. We wanted the students to have informed consent about ‘this is who we are, this is what we're doing, this is what we're going to invite you to participate in, and we want you to choose to be a part of that process,’ instead of trying to force it.”

The first time they tried it, Goffney said, not enough students gave their consent. But they tried again, and “decided to go and volunteer in the classroom first, so that we gave before we took,” she said. That resulted in "a huge difference in which students consented … The kids decided to opt in once they knew who we were, and they trusted us with what we were doing, and then the data that they gave us in the interviews ended up being much richer than I think we would have gotten another way.”

Obtaining student consent should not replace parental consent, Smithing said, but the two should work in tandem. “Specifically, in the digital age, parents know what's best for their kids, but also kids think that they would know more than their parents know and what's best, specifically when it relates to technology,” she said. “Those two truths can exist at the same time, and the more information we can give to students and parents, the easier it is for them to come to an informed decision together.”

But it’s possible to seek consent too often, which can lead to consent fatigue, the panelists said. “We believe and uphold ... the importance of consent on every topic or broader topic,” but not every instance of a use of a certain app or visit to the school nurse, said AASA's Ellerson Ng.

There’s a way to not put all the burden on parents, but still give them and students, along with educators, an opportunity to weigh in, she said. “Our ideal situation would be that the district would have a thorough process by which they vet, review and approve the apps therein, and that parents have to opt in every year for their children to have access to engage with that education,” said Ellerson Ng.

Smithing said putting things in layman’s terms so that students and parents understand what they are consenting to is also key. “What's really important here is informed consent,” she said. “I don't think we have nearly as much education as we need and as much clarity as we need over what we're consenting to or what we're not consenting to.”

She also said that “nowadays, a lot of technology products are not a tool for the user, but are a tool for the creator to gain greater control over the user.”

“A good test for that would be, ‘does this benefit the creator of the technology more than it benefits the students using the technology?’” Smithing said. "If yes, then let's leave it out of schools. If this is benefiting the students more than it's benefiting the creator, let's put it in schools and just mak[e] sure that we're including everyone's perspective when we're coming to that conclusion” by talking to the students, the creators of the technology, parents and educators.