With technology playing an increasingly important role in our lives, concerns are mounting about the consequences: screen addiction, impact of screentime on health and development, increase in internet crimes against children, as well as collection of personal data and subsequent breaches and misuse. 

In school, students are required to use internet connected technology in class, often with very little oversight or regulation. In the US, Educational Technology (Ed-Tech) is an $8B annual industry and companies are vying for access to student data.  Without adequate protection, oversight and regulation, corporate profits will take precedence over student safety and learning.  Federal laws regarding classroom technology and student data privacy are outdated and ineffective.  We need new laws to keep children safe and ensure that classroom technology supports education and learning. 

As Colorado parents, we request laws to:

• Enact school screen-time guidelines, monitoring and transparency

• Prohibit online advertising in schools and targeted marketing to student email accounts

• Require teachers and staff disclosure of compensation received from Ed-Tech companies to promote their products in school

• Protect student data privacy and give parents control over their children’s data

• Protect students from inappropriate online content and images in school including nudity, profanity and racial slurs

Lack of screen-time guidelines monitoring & transparency about classroom technology use-Parents have no idea how much time children spend using screens at school nor what their children are doing online. Excessive screentime has been found to have negative health impacts on children.

• Require schools that provide students with digital devices to monitor & publicly report average daily screentime by class, grade, school, and provide parents access to log of time spent on digital devices & sites visited
• Develop health and safety guidelines and procedures for the use of digital devices in public school classrooms; and require each county board of education to implement specified health and safety guidelines and procedures for the use of digital devices in public school classrooms.
• Create enforcement mechanism and penalties for non-compliance & private right of action

Students are exposed to targeted online advertising at school and marketing emails to student email accounts - Advertising including animated pop-ups that are generated based on children's search results is designed to distract children from their educational activities and serves no valid educational purpose. Students may be unable to differentiate between required class activities, and marketing from vendors.

• Require schools that provide students with internet connected digital devices to install ad blocking software or otherwise prevent student exposure to advertising.
• Prohibit companies from sending marketing emails to students school email accounts
• Create oversight/enforcement mechanism with penalties for non-compliance and private right of action.

Proliferation of "educational technology ambassadors and influencers" in schools-  Given the lucrative $8B Ed-Tech market, companies like Google have sought advantage by providing financial and in kind compensation to teachers and staff to promote school technology products in the classroom and with peers.  There are no clear regulations on conflict of interest.

• Create ethics/ conflict of interest guidelines for teachers and staff regarding educational technology.
• Require annual declaration of any compensation received from technology companies in exchange for promotion of products (in kind or financial)
• Require annual declaration of any agreement to promote products as micro-influencers through social media, presentation at conferences, training for other district employees.

Lack of parental knowledge and consent on student data sharing and privacy- There is no requirement for districts or vendors to inform or obtain consent from parents for collection of student data. Parents have no legal right to know what personally identifiable information (PII) is being collected about their children, how it is used, how it is stored, when it will be destroyed, and whether they will be notified in the event of a data breach. Many districts use of ‘click through agreements” with on demand vendors like Google, whereby districts provide consent on behalf of parent to all Google terms and conditions through the use of their products. (YouTube has been accused of violating US child protection laws by 23 consumer and child safety groups, including The Center for Digital Democracy and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.)

• Require YouTube (owned by Google) to have signed parent consent prior to collecting student search data in the classroom via individual student accounts
• Create transparency and provide parents access to the “data profile” that has been collected on their children by districts / what PII has been shared with all external parties including on demand vendors
• Create opt in/out form for parents to consent to data sharing that explicitly states the information being collected
• Require all vendors and external parties to notify schools and parents upon data breach of /student PII
• Prohibit the use of click through agreements by school districts and require all vendors to be contracted (Google is not contracted and is an “on-demand” vendor authorized via click through agreement where the district provides consent on behalf of parents)
• Create oversight/enforcement mechanism with penalties for non-compliance and private right of action

Students are exposed to inappropriate content online at schools- Screenshots taken in an elementary school show content that is available in a school district compliant with federal law (Children's Internet Protection Act) demonstrating that the law is ineffective.  Children routinely browse YouTube videos in class, despite documentation that YouTube filtering algorithms direct children towards inappropriate content. 

• Revise CIPA to change focus to regulate actual student exposure to inappropriate content images rather than focusing on whether districts having internet filtering systems. 
• Create oversight/enforcement mechanism with penalties for non-compliance and private right of action