Area Implements Internet Restrictions
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Montgomery County Schools and Vidalia City Schools introduced and prepared to implement new internet usage policies in response to Senate Bill 351, which was recently signed into law.
Senate Bill 351, also known as the “Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024,” focuses on internet safety for children and youth, as it restricts students from accessing social media accounts or platforms on school-issued devices or internet. The bill also requires the Georgia Department of Education to develop educational programs for online safety and good internet citizenship.
Montgomery County Schools Technology Director Billy Goodwin presented the Montgomery County Board of Education with his proposed new Internet Acceptable Use and Safety Policy, which was last updated in 2016.
“It was definitely time to update that, along with the new Senate Bill 351 that was passed. We felt that it was time to revise it and look at it because a lot has changed in the past 9 years of what the internet is used for,” Goodwin remarked. He explained that he reviewed the past policy and found it easier to take key points of the old policy and blend them with a new policy that he had drafted.
“This policy matters because it protects students and staff from harmful online behavior. It reinforces digital citizenship and accountability, and it aligns with legal requirements at the state and federal levels,” he told the board. “The design is to prevent and stop cyberbullying, which is mostly taking place on social media outlets. There are too many young kids that are harming themselves over social media cyberbullying that is taking place on school devices or school internet during school time. We can’t control what they do outside, but we can dictate and control what they do while they are under our care and our internet.”
He shared that one of the key elements in this new policy was that students could only use the internet for learning activities and school-related projects, and they must refrain from sharing any personal information or engaging in misconduct online.
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“One of the leading cyberattacks is underage kids sharing their personal information and hackers stealing their personal information and creating things with their social security numbers and accounts. Unless we have parents that are proactive that get their children’s information looked at, they will never know until they go apply for a loan or something like that,” Goodwin added.
This new policy outlaws social media use of any kind unless it is approved and supervised through school-related projects. Cyberbulling, downloading any copyrighted or inappropriate content, and any commercial activity or online transactions will also be restricted.
“Believe it or not: I’m proud of businesses that have been created, but some of them likely use our internet to buy and sell things online,” he said.
Parents must review and sign this new policy for underage students, and will be encouraged to support enforcement and monitor the students’ digital behavior at home. “We want to get it in the parents’ minds that they need to monitor what their kids do at home as much as we do at school,” Goodwin commented.
Teachers and staff are required to supervise students’ internet usage, report and respond to any misuse, and must undergo annual cyberbulling prevention training. This training will focus on how to spot cyberbullying, how to recognize children who are being cyberbullied, and how to report cyberbullying to the proper authorities when it is found.
Goodwin explained that to help prevent any further issues, the district had already implemented a new software to help monitor students’ internet activity. “We knew this legislation was coming, so we have been proactive. We have web filtering and monitoring tools in place. Whenever we implemented the Block-C Classroom Management Software, it came already prepared to cover the Senate Bill 351. It monitors everything from what is typed in a Google search to what is typed in a Google document, all the way down to what You-Tube videos they watched and anything such as that. We get alerts and notifications on that constantly,” he remarked.
He said that the school system will also strictly prohibit the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) because these networks may get around the school’s internet censorship.
Consequences for violating this policy will be to revoke the student’s internet privileges, implement disciplinary actions according to the code of conduct, and possibly charge fines for damaged or lost devices.
If passed, the policy will be reviewed annually by Goodwin and the technology department. The presented policy is currently available for review by the public, and will be voted on at the Board’s next meeting on Monday, July 21.
Meanwhile, the Vidalia City Schools Board of Education officially adopted their revised Internet Acceptable Use Policy at their meeting on Tuesday, July 8.
This policy was originally adopted in 2012, last revised in 2016, and last reviewed in 2022. According to the revised policy, Vidalia City Schools will also implement a ban on the usage of social media on school-issued devices and internet to comply with the guidelines of Senate Bill 351, and will also educate students about appropriate online behavior.
Examples of the topics discussed when instructing students about online behavior include how to interact on social networking sites and chatrooms, as well as cyberbullying awareness and response.
This new policy is available for review online at the district’s website and will be implemented in the 2025/2026 school year.
