A Waikato high school has postponed the implementation of an app that controls parts of student's phones after concerns were expressed about it breaching their privacy.
St Peter's School in Cambridge had planned to make it mandatory for students to download the app Family Zone, which is used by parents and schools to monitor their children's phone activity for safety purposes.
Some of the measures the controller can take are:
- Blocking inappropriate content
- Managing screen-time
- Restricting app downloads and in-app purchases
- Managing social media and YouTube access
- Tracking device location and history
However, some students said they felt the app would be breaching their privacy, especially as it could still restrict them when they aren't at school.
"Pretty much the app can control what we do on our devices at all times, even when we are on data or at home," one student told Newshub.
"Our main issue as students is the fact that they’ve made these decisions and forced us to do this without our parents' consent, and some parents do not want the app because there has been information from the school on who can access the data, what it's being used for, etc."
When approached by Newshub, a spokesperson for St Peter's said the school planned to implement the app to "better maintain our duty of care of our students, ensuring they are safe online no matter what network they are connected to".
They said they would use the app to "ensure [students] are not accessing inappropriate sites or where they may be at risk" and assured they can not view student's "personal messages, data or content".
"The safety of our students at St Peter's, Cambridge is paramount. We ensure that all personal information that is collected from students is done so in a fair manner and does not intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the individual concerned, in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020."
They confirmed the app would be mandatory for all students.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said "many schools" use the app and it's up to a school to decide on its own policies which parents and students have to agree to in order for a child to be enrolled there.
"If a student or parent is concerned about the app, they could make a complaint to the school’s privacy officer. Depending on the school’s policies, there may be flexibility if a child or parent is reluctant to use the app. But that is a matter between them and the school."
Netsafe CEO Martin Cocker agreed the technology is legal and he has seen more and more interest from schools to find "blunt" and "technical" solutions for safety issues.
"We certainly promote an approach to safety which is based on engaging the various communities around a school in resolutions of safety issues.... The problem is they take time, they require a lot of process and effort on people's part and schools are dealing with a lot of issues so I think they are increasingly looking at these sort of blunt tools or adding these quite intrusive safety software."
He warned implementing an app against student's wishes could risk damaging the school's relationship with students.
"The school has the right to do it. It's not the same to say that it's the perfect response. Young people have a right to privacy, they have a right to live their lives free of surveillance but the school also has a right too, as it's responsible for the care of those students at that time. It has the legal right to do so but obviously if you, as the school, get offside with the student population, it gets harder and harder to maintain the kind of culture in the school."
On Wednesday afternoon, the spokesperson for St Peter's confirmed they had decided to delay introducing the app.
"We emailed our boarding community on Thursday to introduce Family Zone but now realise that there were a number of questions that were not clear for our student and parent body so have determined we will delay the implementation to ensure we have time to answer all their concerns.
"We still believe this is a vital tool in keeping our students safe both in the classroom and in the boarding house. However, we acknowledge that more consultation is required."
