Protection of students’ personal data on the websites of general secondary education institutions: research results

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the results of an all-Ukrainian study on the problems of sharing students’ personal data on general secondary education institutions’ websites and pages in social networks. A survey of 31,478 parents/persons who replace them and 11,415 teachers and representatives/representatives of the administration of general secondary education institutions was conducted, the results of which were compared with those obtained during the pilot study of 2018. The effectiveness of the approbation of methodological recommendations regarding the organization of an educational institution’s website (with a focus on respect for human rights in the online space), based on the results of the pilot study was verified. It was found that 22.13% more parents/persons who replace them sign permission to take photos and videos of their child, the number of educational institutions’ websites, which publish warnings and contact information for deleting personal data, photos, videos with the child, has increased. It was determined that the number of general secondary education institutions that have a common vision, understanding, instructions and rules for publishing/distributing photos and videos with children on social networks and messengers has increased. This was indicated by 47.12% more parents/persons who replace them, and by 56.48% more teaching staff. The survey showed that 62.71% of the interviewed teachers apply the methodological recommendations and, more often, the rules for filling the educational institution’s website approved by the internal instructions of the educational institution. On the other hand, certain problems related to the research topic were identified and ways of solving them were proposed.