Exercises — Chapter 37: Children Under the Gaze

Exercise 37.1 — Personal Surveillance Audit: Your Educational History (Individual, 45–60 minutes)

Overview: Map the surveillance systems you encountered throughout your education, using Jordan's exercise as a model.

Instructions:

Create a timeline of your educational surveillance history from elementary school through your current institution. For each educational level, identify:

  1. Physical surveillance systems (cameras, ID requirements, space restrictions)
  2. Digital surveillance systems (monitoring software, filtered networks, tracked devices)
  3. Administrative surveillance (records systems, behavioral tracking, data collected)
  4. Social surveillance (peer reporting, teacher observation, parent communication systems)

For each system you identify, answer: - Were you aware of it at the time? - Did you consent to it (even formally)? - Did it affect your behavior? How? - Who had access to the data it generated?

Written reflection (400–600 words): What patterns do you notice across your educational surveillance history? What do you know now that you did not know at the time? If you have younger siblings or relatives currently in school, how does your experience compare to theirs?

Exercise 37.2 — FERPA Policy Analysis (Group, 60–75 minutes)

Overview: Analyze your institution's FERPA policy and student data practices for adequacy.

Instructions:

Working in groups of three or four, locate and read: 1. Your institution's FERPA policy (typically on the Registrar's website) 2. Your institution's acceptable use policy for technology 3. The privacy policies of at least two technology platforms your institution uses (e.g., the learning management system, any proctoring software, campus email)

For each document, analyze: - What data is collected? - Who has access, and under what conditions? - How long is data retained? - What are the mechanisms for students to access their own data? - What happens when law enforcement requests data? - What happens to data when a student graduates or leaves?

Deliverable: A 600–800 word memo to the university's Chief Privacy Officer identifying the three most significant gaps between your institution's current data practices and the FERPA reform principles identified in Section 7.2 of the chapter. Include specific recommendations for each gap.

Exercise 37.3 — The Protective vs. Controlling Spectrum (Individual, 30–45 minutes)

Overview: Apply the chapter's analytical framework to evaluate specific school surveillance technologies.

Instructions:

For each of the following surveillance systems, complete a structured analysis using the six-question framework from Section 7.1:

  1. GoGuardian on school-issued Chromebooks
  2. Gaggle email screening
  3. School cafeteria palm-reader payment systems
  4. School bus GPS tracking accessible to parents in real time
  5. AI-powered cameras that flag "suspicious behavior" in school hallways

Your analysis of each system should: - Identify the documented safety benefit (or lack thereof) - Assess data minimization (is collection limited to what the benefit requires?) - Evaluate disparate impact potential - Describe the accountability mechanisms available to students and families - Reach a tentative assessment: protective, controlling, or both?

Synthesis question (300–400 words): After completing the analysis for all five systems, what criteria most reliably distinguish protective from controlling surveillance of children? Is the protective/controlling binary adequate, or does your analysis suggest a more complex typology?

Exercise 37.4 — School Board Testimony (Group Role Play, 75–90 minutes)

Overview: Conduct a simulated school board meeting on the proposed adoption of student email monitoring software.

Setup:

Your school board is considering adopting Gaggle email monitoring for all district schools, K–12. The meeting will hear testimony from multiple stakeholder groups.

Groups (assign roles before class):

  • Gaggle representative: Present the product's safety benefits, data practices, and terms of service
  • District safety administrator: Explain the safety rationale for the adoption
  • Privacy advocate: Present civil liberties concerns about the system
  • Parent of a student with LGBTQ+ identity: Discuss concerns about their child's private communications being monitored
  • Student government representative: Represent students' perspectives on digital privacy
  • School counselor: Address both the safety benefits and clinical concerns about the system's effect on help-seeking behavior

Format:

  • Each group: 3 minutes of testimony
  • School board questions: 15 minutes
  • Public comment period (open to all): 10 minutes
  • Board deliberation: 10 minutes

Post-exercise written reflection (individual, 300–400 words): What arguments were most persuasive in the debate? What information would you want before voting on the adoption? If you were a school board member, how would you vote and why?

Exercise 37.5 — Children's App Privacy Audit (Individual or Pair, Major Assignment, 60–90 minutes)

Overview: Audit the privacy practices of a children's application against COPPA requirements and best practices.

Instructions:

Select a mobile application marketed to or widely used by children under 13. Read the full privacy policy and terms of service. Then analyze:

  1. Data collection: What categories of personal information does the app collect? Does collection differ by user age?
  2. COPPA compliance: Does the app obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting data from users under 13? How is age verified?
  3. Third-party sharing: Does the app share data with third parties, including advertising networks? For what purposes?
  4. Data retention: How long is user data retained? What happens when a user deletes the account?
  5. Access and correction: Do parents have the right to access and delete their child's data? Is this right practical or merely formal?
  6. Behavioral advertising: Is data used for behavioral advertising targeting? Are children's profiles used to target advertising?

Deliverable: A 700–900 word policy brief evaluating the app's privacy practices. Your brief should reach a conclusion about whether the app's practices are compliant with COPPA's requirements, adequate relative to best practices, or neither. If you find violations or inadequacies, specify what enforcement or legislative action you would recommend.

Exercise 37.6 — Developmental Stakes Essay (Individual, Major Essay, 600–800 words)

Overview: Develop the chapter's developmental argument in a formal essay.

Prompt:

The chapter argues that comprehensive surveillance of children may harm their developmental capacity for privacy, risk-taking, and autonomous identity formation. Evaluate this argument. Your essay should:

  1. State the developmental argument clearly in your own words
  2. Identify the empirical claims the argument rests on and evaluate the evidence for them
  3. Identify the strongest objection to the argument (perhaps: children need protection precisely because their judgment is not fully developed)
  4. Respond to that objection
  5. Reach a conclusion about the developmental stakes of school surveillance

Your essay should engage with at least two concepts from the book's theoretical framework (e.g., normalization, behavioral modification, internalized vs. externalized self-regulation).