The law is clear and the vast majority of teachers respect it, but there is a small but very visible section of them who misuse social media, especially short TikTok videos, to earn money likes and followers with images in which their students appear, which constitutes a violation of their rights. On this popular platform, with one billion users, content creators are known as tiktokers; on the other hand, the teachers (teacher, in English) are called maitokers. A dance, a contest, a game. Things like this come to TikTok thanks to teachers.
The article of the organic law on Protection of Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights, approved in December 2018, establishes that “educational centers and any others that develop activities in which minors participate will guarantee the protection of the interest superior of the minor and his fundamental rights, especially the right to the protection of personal data, to the publication or dissemination of his personal data through services of the information society”.
Therefore, teachers who carry out a bad practice cannot claim that they are unaware of the legal framework that their workplaces follow: the schools. Article 92 specifies that “when the said publication or dissemination takes place through social network services or equivalent services, they must have the consent of the minor or their legal representatives”.
In the case of children under 14, consent must be given by parents or legal guardians. Minors between 14 and 18 years of age may grant consent for the use of their data on their own.
María Lázaro, author of the book Redes sociales y menores (Anaya Multimedia), clarifies that “there are a good number of teachers who are using social networks very well, in a really educational way, without exposing their students, sharing the their knowledge with teachers and students and generating very broad communities”.
But he also points out that, “in a few cases”, there are “teachers who are publishing on the networks content in which the students expose. “It’s not just personal data – he explains. They are contributing to creating a digital footprint of those students”. And without there being “a teaching objective included in the curriculum”.
Among these contents are sensual dances, inappropriate for minors, but also things that happen inside the classrooms. Lázaro points out that “if you want to demonstrate your teaching abilities, it is not necessary for your students’ data to come out, such as a correction of an exam or a note”.
Rafael Alarcón is a school director who believes that “many people have lost so much exposure. It’s a minority, the one that usually stands out, the one that comes out in the media.”
“What is the purpose of a teacher recording himself with his students?” asks Alarcón. “They’re looking for notoriety and for some media to cover it, even if it’s negative, because they know it’s open to criticism,” he says. This center manager believes that the teacher who uploads videos of this type “is not doing his job”. “Normally – he observes – it usually comes accompanied by songs that should not be played in a school, because most of them are reggaeton, and we already know the lyrics of many of these songs”.
When can it be appropriate to make a video with the students to be viewed in the school or its internal channels? Rafael Alarcón gives an example: images of students can be recorded “as long as there is an educational purpose”. “For example, when working on the oral presentation, I record it so that later in a later session I show the images to the students. I see a clear educational function there”, he says.
Problems can also arise when it is the parents who intervene. This center director explains that in an activity with students who traveled abroad, the parents wanted to have images. They were first broadcast on an internal school channel, but then some parents broadcast them on WhatsApp and a family member put them on Facebook. In this case, it was necessary to ask him to remove them.
The authorities maintain a policy of constant training among teachers. The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), the National Cyber Security Institute (Incibe) and the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (Intef) convened a few months ago the first edition of the Educate in Privacy course and digital security. The calls will continue to be periodic. The AEPD also has a priority channel for complaints about the protection of minors.
In Catalonia, an audit commissioned by the Catalan Data Protection Authority (Apdcat), with a sample of 224 educational centers and published in 2020, discovered that “more than half of the centers regularly and openly publish a large volume of photographs and videos with clearly identifiable students, both on the center’s website and on social networks. This means that the control of the images is lost and that they can be available on the internet for anyone, and indefinitely”.
The director of Apdcat, Meritxell Borràs, observes that, “if you publish a photo of a child whose face is visible, you can use the photo and the location, and you end up locating which school he goes to. It is information that is not only unnecessary, but also inappropriate. We have to protect the children. And everything on social networks means losing control.”
The Catalan agency has an agreement with the Department of Education to carry out periodic teacher training actions and has disseminated didactic material.
Schools know the legislation, unequivocal, and authorities disclose how to protect children online. Even if some pretend not to.
