Terms of Service and Modeling Responsible Behavior

Terms of service are an interesting problem for teachers, students, and parents. The terms of service for many online tools popular for educators to assign to students require users to be 13 years or older, but that part seems to be forgotten sometimes when teachers are assigning useful tools to younger students. As Jennifer Carey, a director of academic technology at the Ransom Everglades School in Florida points out in a blog post, just forgetting about these terms of service – just giving them a “wink and a nod”- can model behaviors that run contrary to the advice parents and teachers give kids about other kinds of sites that also require users to be 13 or older. In her post, Carey advises teachers to read and understand the terms before asking students to sign up for services that may violate federal statutes that regulate student information. "Anytime you are considering an online tool or service, it's important to ensure that the security of your students plays a key role in your decision," Carey writes. Parents also need to pay attention to the tools their children are being asked to use.