If it was the school that had provided the children with the porn magazines and violent films, it would have filled the front pages of the newspapers. That would be a scandal. But this scandal takes place in the Norwegian education system. Every single day. All over Norway For several years, Norwegian children have taken porn and violence home with them in their backpacks, in the form of a digital school unit, often decorated with an apple. In many places, the machine is completely unregulated or has defective filters. And the children are often not old before they pick up that by Googling certain letters, rough porn appears, or ‘people who have sex’ as the children themselves say. We have carried out a nationwide survey among parents in primary schools to map the state of privacy, advertising, tracking and possible exposure to age-classified content on the children’s digital school devices and the parents’ experiences with digitalisation. We received responses from parents in 103 municipalities. In as many as 100 of the municipalities, parents respond that their children can see age-rated content such as violence, sex, porn, suicide, animal abuse and torture on school screens. IT advisor Christer V. Aas and author Maja Lunde demand less and more controlled use of screens in school. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news As part of the survey, parents were also asked to test the digital devices. 46 percent of those tested reported that it was possible to turn off ‘safe search’ on Google or that ‘safe search’ was not even activated on the child’s school screen. Many of the children of the parents who have responded go to primary school. Poor digital competence Parents throughout the country have for a long time tried to tell schools and municipalities about the problem, but have been repulsed by the fact that the children have to learn internet skills and digital competence. But those who demonstrably have poor digital competence are municipalities and schools that distribute so-called learning boards to children without ensuring that they are actually suitable for children. The legal competence is clearly not good either, because children have a right to protection against harmful content through Article 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And as if that wasn’t enough, in 2018 the Storting unanimously decided that the school units should have a filter. A decision few seem to have understood. Offenses Poor digital competence is also sending these gadgets home, where the child can be left alone with them, without the guardians gaining insight into or control over their use. Here too, legal perspectives are not considered by the school owner. “Everyone has the right to respect for their private life and family life, their home and their correspondence”, says Article 8 of the ECHR. Section 30 of the Children’s Act states that parents have the right and duty to make decisions on behalf of the child in personal matters. Using a screen at home can definitely be said to be a personal matter. While many parents install filters and screen use apps on private devices and try to limit their children’s screen use, the school sends home what is in practice an unregulated, large mobile phone from the time the children are five or six years old. And the parents have nothing to say. The parent survey shows that many parents are frustrated and experience being run over by the school, which does not exactly prepare the ground for good school-home cooperation. Key figures from the survey: Challenges and breaches of the law are reported in all of the 103 municipalities where responses to this survey have been obtained. 79 percent of respondents answer that the digital device is sent home. A clear majority, 67.3 per cent, of these respond that repatriation presents challenges. 68.3 per cent have a data agreement and as much as 79.5 per cent of these have signed that they are liable for compensation. Only 12.6 per cent answer yes that they know whether the children’s privacy is safeguarded, only 13.7 per cent have their own school account on Google, while 24.8 per cent answer that the children have the same password as others in the class. As many as 81 percent found visible advertising and 42 percent came up with pornographic images when they tested the device. The free text responses show that many parents are very frustrated with the ICT infrastructure, and that they feel overwhelmed by the school. Link to the entire survey here. (Source: the chronicle writers) Where did the precaution go? The schools have been digitized without the precautionary principle being sufficiently governed. Despite the fact that this concerns the youngest of our citizens. However, some schools are finally trying to regulate. Among other things, Oslo School has fronted its new filter solution in the media. But when we carried out more thorough tests of various machines from Oslo School, it turned out that harmful content was still available on the PCs. And the new filter on the iPad is not good enough. It removed pornographic images and enabled ‘safe search’ on well-known websites, but did not prevent access on lesser-known services. The filter also did not remove advertising and did not sufficiently prevent tracking. This is also an offence, because the Education Act is clear that the school must be advertising-free. The answers in the parent survey may indicate that some schools and municipalities have distributed tablets and PCs as they come from the supplier, without considering the children’s legal protection and thus without building machines that are suitable for children – or good, distraction-free learning, for the fault of the case. Requires immediate action Now, fast action must be taken. The municipalities must immediately ensure that filters and ‘secure search’ are put into use. Apps and websites that are not directly relevant to the teaching should be closed. It will also help improve children’s concentration and learning. A national DNS service must be in place, and the Minister for Knowledge must ensure that guidance is given to the municipalities. And before school screens have filters, before children are protected, before parents gain control over what happens at home, the digital devices simply have to stay at school. Yes, it can certainly present some challenges in relation to homework. But the most important thing is the legal protection of children and young people. The law comes before homework.
ttn-69
With porn in the school bag – Statement
