Are We Violating Students’ Privacy? Examining Tensions Between Privacy and Protection When Responding to Cyberbullying

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Confronting Issues With Student Privacy, Academic Integrity, and Other Ethical Concerns (Table 26)

Abstract

Online harassment is a growing issue among college students. While staff and students agree that universities should protect students from online aggression, they are concerned about encroaching on students’ privacy. As a result, many institutions are unsure of how to respond to and prevent online harassment. We present a qualitative study of undergraduate students and full-time staff from a Historically Black University perceptions between upholding privacy and a safe learning environment. Our findings revealed a series of tensions between student privacy and safety - primarily focusing on the thresholds that private information needs to be reported to uphold community safety. We used Contextual Integrity theory to consider how to examine those tensions and inform institutional policy, practice, and future research.

Authors

• Juana Hollingsworth, Morgan State University

• Virginia Byrne, Morgan State University

• Priya Kumar, Pennsylvania State University