Citing mental and physical health concerns, parents, politicians and safe technology advocates are pushing back against an FCC initiative to put Wi-Fi on school buses.
Parents, politicians and safe technology advocates are pushing back against a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiative to put Wi-Fi on school buses.
Patricia Burke of Safe Tech International in an April 29 Substack post accused the federal regulatory agency for telecommunications of being “the bully boarding the bus.”
Burke cited evidence of eye damage from excessive screen time and the risk of exposing kids to increased cyberbullying and addictive social media apps via unsupervised internet access while riding to and from school.
“It is time to stop throwing children’s health, including eyesight and mental well-being, under the bus,” Burke said.
Last October the FCC announced it would allow money from its E-Rate program to fund the installation of Wi-Fi on school buses starting in fiscal year 2024.
The E-Rate program is funded through taxes on consumers’ phone bills, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
The program is designed to make “telecommunications and information services more affordable for schools and libraries.” But the FCC argued that expanding it to include internet services on school buses was warranted to “ensure that the millions of students caught in the Homework Gapcan more fully engage in their learning.”
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the program’s expansion would especially help kids who live in rural areas, where broadband connections are sparse, and who ride long distances on the bus.
Soon after the FCC’s announcement, parents Maurine and Matthew Molak challenged the FCC’s initiative in court.
The Molaks, whose 16-year-old son died as a result of cyberbullying, are co-founders of David’s Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit working to stop cyberbullying of children and teens “through education, legislation and legal action.”
On Dec. 20, 2023, they filed a petition for review before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, arguing the FCC’s ruling to allow E-Rate funding for school bus Wi-Fi “exceeds the FCC’s statutory authority” and is undermining their nonprofit’s mission to eradicate cyberbullying by “enabling unsupervised social-media access by children and teenagers.”
“When it came to my attention,” Maurine Molak told The Defender, “that our own federal government had decided to fund kids’ unsupervised access to the internet on school buses, I felt I needed to take action.”
Read More: Throwing Kids’ Health Under the Bus? FCC Wants to Put Wi-Fi on School Buses