The Members Forum

Interesting.... that whole school thing seems a bit "big brotherish"

In a shocking case at the Lower Merion High School district in Pennsylvania, U.S. An FBI official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, confirmed they will be opening up a criminal investigation over the matter.

Students issued laptops in the aforementioned district were given computers that could have their webcams remotely activated at the will of the school administrators. The practice had been in place for the past 14 months but was only discovered recently when a school punished a student named Blake Robbins for "improper behavior in his home," with the Vice Principal even providing a photo as evidence. According to Boing Boing, a class action suit has been filed against the school, on behalf of all students issued the laptops.

The School issued a response to the recent reports and stated "the security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student." The school say they remotely activated webcams 42 times to find missing student laptops in the past 14 months, but never did so to spy on students, as the lawsuit claims. Dr. Christopher McGinley, Superintendent at the Lower Merion School District also said the school was sorry for its actions. "We regret if this situation has caused any concern or inconvenience among our students and families," he said.

FBI to probe School Webcam Case

-- Edited by barney on Sunday 21st of February 2010 12:09:20 PM