School in Japan Reportedly Forces Students To Reveal Social Media Accounts or It’ll Suspend Them

Last Updated on 2020-01-15 , 11:00 pm

Having a social media account is the norm these days.

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, they’re all normal.

In fact, not having them is not normal.

Imagine having your accounts watched by your school. Now that’s definitely not. Cool. Even my own family members don’t follow me on social media.

Unfortunately, this is the case for some students in Japan.

New School Policies

Now you’re thinking, new school policies? Like, no colourful hair bands? Only white school shoes? You’re wrong. Very wrong.

Twitter user @asanansonsi, a second-year high school student in Japan, recently posted a tweet with the form that her school had passed around.

これ自分の学校のアンケートなんだが内容がマジでどうかしてる。Q2が酷すぎで言葉が出ない。先生に言ったら「嫌なら義務教育じゃないんで辞めていいですよ」って言われた。#拡散希望 pic.twitter.com/TIdvTG6kcH

— アサナン尊師 (@asanansonsi) April 14, 2019

The first question in the photo translates to asking students if they use Line, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media platform. This along with how many “friends” they have on each platform, reported soranews24.

Since social media is becoming such a big thing these days, it’s honestly not shocking how schools are starting to do this.

Who knows, maybe Singapore schools will start to pick this up too.

But that’s not all.

There’s More

To make things creepier, the second question in the photo translates to: “This is for those of you who answered ‘Yes’ in regards to using social media. In order to prevent trouble caused via social media, this school performs Internet patrols. To prevent any trouble, please write down the ID you use for each of your social media accounts.”

Cues nervous laughter.

Uh, time to deactivate and hide.

To highlight, the questions ask for the students’ pre-existing social media accounts. This means that the school would not only be able to see what they post now but everything else they posted in the past.

Exposed.

All those cringe-worthy Facebook posts or tweets are going to come back to haunt them.

Once said that your teacher looks like Mr Bean? Good luck.

Why Not Lie?

You must be thinking, why can’t they just lie about their accounts? They wouldn’t find out anyway, right?

The school is one step ahead of their students.

The form also states: “Students are not allowed to use social media accounts other than the ones they write down on this form. If you are found to be using an account not declared on this form, you will be suspended from school.”

Suspended. That’s how serious this school is taking on this issue.

@asanansonsi told her teacher that she thought the school was going too far, and her teacher’s reply will shock you.

“High school education isn’t mandatory [in Japan], so if you don’t like the policy, you’re free to drop out.”

First, you force this on your students, and then you tell them that they can quit school if they want to…

Although high school in Japan isn’t mandatory, it’s difficult to get a job that can sustain you if you only had middle-school education.

So one thing’s for sure: she isn’t dropping out of school because she refused to tell her school what her Instagram handle is.

On Private

It was also previously reported that her account was made private a few days after she submitted the form. Which is a clever move, because she did indeed submit her social media accounts. Since she made her account private, they basically had zero access to her tweets.

But for influencers who live for maximum reach? Goody luck.

Hopefully, Singapore schools don’t do this either. I definitely wouldn’t want my school administrators to be snooping around my social media accounts.

What do you think of this policy? Overkill or totally reasonable?