Linda Dobson at Parent at the Helm, “PA School Spycam Case: Computers Rigged to Spy; Protocol Ignored”:

And yet again, I implore you to share this information with all parents, regardless of where their children go to school or how they are educated. …while this appears to be an isolated incident, I don’t for one moment believe that others aren’t taking advantage of the technology. Couple it with just a bit of that “we know what’s best for you” attitude sweeping through government employees today like the plague and said technology is employed to…help educate your children? Crucial lines have been crossed here, and it’s up to parents to start drawing some lines of their own in response – or to tell the system it will just have to get along without your children.

And a critical point to keep in mind as you read about these developments: Children enrolled in charter schools are public school students.

News item:

“A Philadelphia-area school official confronted a student with photographic evidence that he was doing bad things at home. She got her evidence by activating the webcam on the laptop in his house, a lawsuit claims.

“Lower Merion School District officials are spying on students and their families inside their homes with Web cameras installed in pupil laptops, claims Blake J. Robbins in a lawsuit against the district.

“The lawsuit, filed Feb. 11, alleges that webcams in personal laptops — that are issued to every high school student — can be, and have been, remotely activated by school administrators without a person in the same room as the laptop being the wiser.”

While this may not seem homeschooling-related on the surface, it brings to mind a column by Larry and Susan Kaseman from the March/April, 2003 issue of Home Education Magazine:

Let’s Not Let Cyber Charter Schools Do In Homeschooling by Larry & Susan Kaseman

Cyber charter schools set the dangerous precedent of government regulation within our homes. Cyber charter schools will undoubtedly monitor the time a student spends on the computer as one way of answering demands for accountability. The technology is available to monitor the time someone is using their computer, but it is very difficult to know whether it is the student himself or a sibling, parent, or someone else. One way to overcome this problem would be to install a surveillance camera of the type that is now available so cyber charter school personnel can actually see who is working at the computer. The extent to which the government and corporations will know what goes on inside the homes and minds of cyber charter school students is frightening.