Wyoming could become one of the first states to institute broad protections for students unwilling to give school officials access to their social-media accounts.
The proposal, which made its way through the state Task Force on Digital Information Privacy, now sits before the state’s joint education committee.
The degree to which school officials can monitor private social-media accounts housed off school grounds has sparked a national debate over where a student’s right to privacy ends and a school’s obligation to ensure security, discipline, and cybersafety begins.
Wyoming’s bill would make it a misdemeanor, punishable with fines ranging up to $2,000, for school officials to request a student’s personal social-media user name or password without a warrant or parental permission.
