Parental access to own kids email...

[Ben_Stanton]

Hi guys,

 

Got an email from one of the parents asking if he could have his daughters school pop3 and server settings etc.. When asked why, he just said that his daughter is at an impressionable age and wants to monitor what she is doing on there.

 

I asked if he was going to let his daughter know, and he said no (as that would negate the whole point obviously). I personally don't feel too happy about it. I queried with SLT and they were also dubious, the CPO wasn't too happy either.

 

What do you guys think? Morally and legally, where do we stand?

 

Cheers guys - a real help

 

Ben

[jamesreedersmith]

Dont do it - you have no obligation to provide any details.

[GREED]

It is an interesting point and not the first time this has come up (in my career). What age?

 

Previously we said that in order to do this we would need to inform the student, it infringing on their rights as an individual. We gave reassurances that their emails were internally monitored and filtered from the outside world, and finally that it would be on par with recording their playground converstions, and so unless we had the students concent (or at least knowledge) then we would not proceed.

 

Section 2 above calmed their fears.

[Ben_Stanton]

It is an interesting point and not the first time this has come up (in my career). What age?

 

Previously we said that in order to do this we would need to inform the student, it infringing on their rights as an individual. We gave reassurances that their emails were internally monitored and filtered from the outside world, and finally that it would be on par with recording their playground converstions, and so unless we had the students concent (or at least knowledge) then we would not proceed.

 

Section 2 above calmed their fears.

 

Thanks for the replies. She is a Year 7.

 

In what sense are your email filtered and monitored?

[GREED]

(Were, not working for school anymore!)

 

Standard filtering of emails from external addresses, spam and the likes. We also had the ability and authority to check mailboxes, like most schools. We had selected staff with that facility (ie learning support, careers etc) so as to help monitor students deemed 'vulnerable', but the facility as a whole was part of the user agreement they all signed.

[Ben_Stanton]

Oh ok. Well the girls all sign an AUP stating we can and may check any of their school email mailboxes etc.. The emails are scanned for SPAM coming in and I have also set up a very crude 'profanity' filter that alerts a key member of staff when triggered (in or out).

 

From what I gather and as an example, I think he wants to just check that she is not emailing boys/girls from another school or area that might lead her stray etc. Crazy I know.

[GREED]

Totally understandable, but I think generally this should be a no, certainly without telling the student that this is happening. She is legally aware that you can check her email, but not her parents.

[featured_spectre]

Its a no, not without telling the student, as it breaks privacy laws.

 

As the student signed an AUP within the school (and I asuume with parental signature) then you are within your rights to deny the request

[rh91uk]

I would also deny it. I assume you have monitoring systems in place, so as such, I assume it's a correctly monitored email account

[FN-GM]

Do you have the ability to use POP3? if not then its a no. The only other way would be to tell him her webmail password

[Ben_Stanton]

Do you have the ability to use POP3? if not then its a no. The only other way would be to tell him her webmail password

 

I thought about this. I have actually disabled this function, although I did previously have it up and running but via imap.

 

My idea, if he was to be granted this right would be to add him as an OWA user (restricted, no email ability etc.) and then grant him mailbox rights to his daughters mailbox (exchange 2007). He'd then simply log in via his credentials and then 'jump' to her mailbox in OWA. That way, nobody needs to ask or know her password. But, I don't like the fact that there is then the possibilty of him 'masquerading' as her...plus having access to the student address book etc. etc..

 

Hmmm. A tricky one but the general consensus seems to be no - unless he specifically asks his daughter. In that case, he can simply ask her to open it up at home and show him. This is maybe counter-productive as she could then, if she wanted, simply open up a hotmail account for privacy!

 

Hmmmmm

[pete]

Divulging account details to unauthorised individuals is a breach of our AUP (even if it's me doing it).

 

Plus it's a bit creepy and we'd like them to use the email facilities rather than avoiding them because $parent is reading over their shoulder.

 

edit: If the kid has any clue at all, she's already got another email account for shenanigans because one of her year will have been pulled up for being silly via email.

Edited November 10, 2010 by pete

[FN-GM]

I would say no. He would have access to her e-mail he would have the ability to contact other students. Thats a big no no for obvious reasons!

 

You could offer to remove e-mail from the student i suppose.

Edited November 10, 2010 by FN-GM

[elsiegee40]

I would say no, not without the knowledge of the child. If the child wants to have top secret conversations with others she's not going to use her monitored school email account, she'll set up a gmail or hotmail account... or use facebook... or text...

 

My teenagers really don't use email to talk to their mates.

 

Dad needs an e-safety talk so that he can learn how teenagers actually communicate electronically and how futile it is to rely on net-nanny software and checking a single email account.

[GREED]

I think dad needs a little education rather than control...

[penfold_99]

This is a very tricky issue.

 

AFAIK under the Education Act a Parent has rights to see an data/information that a school stores in connection with their child. It could be argued that this includes emails. This clause overrides the DPA as if it didn't a student could bar a Parent from seeing their school report etc. A schools does have a get out clause if they believe the information could endanger the child.

 

The big NO is that the parent would have access to other students email address.

 

The only out would be if you printed out every single email censored all the personal information to other users and then photo copied it (this would remove the possibilityof see the removed text) then give it the parent if that successfully argued that they are entitled under the Education Act.

[GrumbleDook]

As above ... the child is year 7 ... this means that even under EU laws on data ownership (part of the root of the DPA remember) that the age for taking ownership of data is over 12 years old. This is commonly translated as 13, but could be interpreted as 12 years and one day. If the child is not over 12 then the parent is the data owner on the child's behalf.

 

The parent could assert their right to access all information about their child, but you would have to ask them if it was down to a known or perceived concern. In which case the CPO would take over and a suitable compromise is that the Dad tells the CPO the concern, who may then ask you to allow them to check over some emails, or adapt whatever filtering you use to try and see what is going on.

 

Let Dad know that if it is ever found out that he was snooping on the email then the child *will* find other ways of passing illicit messages to others. It could be via SMS, it could be pieces of paper ... it is amazing the lengths kids go to when it comes to sharing stuff with one another.

 

So ... privacy laws only come into effect if they are not superceded by child protection and child welfare issues. If it is something serious the Dad should share it with the CPO. If the Dad refuses to share it, or it is a control thing then you might find the CPO asking if they (the CPO) can monitor the email just in case the CPO needs to raise a concern with others about the parent (social services, police, etc).

 

There is the other slight problem. If they are wanting access to the POP details, unless they are careful and don't download from the server then it will be obvious when the child's emails go missing. If you are going to snoop on your own kids then there are far better ways than this.

[GREED]

Great comment GrumbleDook thanks for the information!

[Ben_Stanton]

Thanks GrumbleDook - that is exactly what I was after. Thank you, very informative.

 

I'll speak with SLT and let you know the outcome.

 

Thanks guys

[robmal]

No way for all the well expressed reasons above!

 

But as hinted at by one poster, you would be providing a means by which an adult could pose as a child within your email system - and if that doesn't make your blood run cold................

 

I have found this thread most informative, as the more learned responses are just what we need, my reply is instictive

 

Cheers all!

[Gatt]

We don't let the pupils send or receive external emails

They have webmail access but the only real danger would be peer bullying, we don't allow IMAP or POP3

 

That said, if we did allow external mail, I would be very dubious of allowing Mum/Dad access to their childs email info

 

But, then I am a Dad, and find myself thinking the same as the Dad from the OP.

 

I do have a workaround - a sort of "Journal" account for that child, that the parent(s) could have access to..

Taking GrumbleDook's post into account, then we would need to advise pupils >12 (Y8?) that they can be seen by Mum & Dad, and they (Pupil/Mum+Dad) would need to sign a consent form of sorts to allow this.