Abilene ISD's new TikTok ban based on security concerns

The Abilene ISD was a step ahead of the University of Texas at Austin.

On Tuesday it was announced in an email to students and faculty that the Austin university wont be able to access the social media platform while connected to UT internet servers.

“The university is taking these important steps to eliminate risks to information contained in the university’s network and to our critical infrastructure,” the email stated. “As outlined in the governor’s directive, TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices — including when, where and how they conduct internet activity — and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government.”

TikTok is a video hosting service that's owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Videos are short in duration and hugely popular worldwide.

The University of North Texas, University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Dallas also have instituted bans. The Texas A&M University System also is putting TikTok restrictions into place.

On Dec. 7, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order that banned access to TikTok on state-issued cellphones and computers, citing security risks. Other governors had given the same order.

Abilene ISD Communications Director Jordan Ziemer said Thursday that Abbott has sought how to ban that on state employees' personal devices, with a mid-February goal on implementation.

"Not just state-owned devices but personal devices of state employees," Abilene ISD Communications Director Jordan Ziemer said.

It in December that the Abilene ISD, which already had strengthened its student cellphone use policy to start the current school year, began to discuss what to do bout TikTok. Abbott's order did not include local agencies, such as school districts, but should the AISD follow suit?

Ziemer said preparation had begun to honor the AISD board of trustees in January, "and we had some staff that had been planning to use TikTok to recognized the board. The all pressed pause on all those projects."

Legal counsel to the district agreed the Abbott's ban did not extend to the district "but the strong recommendation was restricting access to TikTok on the district network due to date security concerns that they believe are real, or at least there's enough reality to those concerns to make them recommend to us to make those changes,

"The decision came down to what's best for our district? What's best for our students?"

When students, faculty and staff returned to classes after the Christmas break, TikTok could not be accessed through the district. Personal cellphones and computers are not affected.

"It's not up to us if a student is going to use that outside of school or at home."

"I think the decision we're making is in keeping the education institution in Texas ... because of the security concerns," Ziemer said.

TikTok decision works with AISD's revised cellphone policy

To begin school in August, Gustavo Villanueva, associate superintendent for leadership and student services in the AISD, addressed stiffer cellphone use policies. Basically, students could bring cellphones to school but those were not permitted in classes.

If the policy is violated, even for the first time, a student pays a fine to get the cellphone returned.

More:Abilene ISD limiting cellphone use in classrooms, boosting fine policy

Ziemer on Thursday said the newer TikTok policy fits into this model.

"The way we encourage students to be attentive at school," he said.

Villanueva said TikTok has "created major disturbances on our campuses."

He cited challenges, some that are funny and others that are destructive. One widely known challenge, was to destroy restrooms, he said. It was known as the "devious licks" challenge.

And those were carried out on campuses here, Villanueva said.

"Inevitably, kiddos will follow those folks and continue to meet those challenges," he said.

To cut down on the destructive challenges, a TikTok would be good, he said. But TikTok has not been widely used for educational purposes, as far as he knows.

The revised cellphone policy for the 2022-23 school year had less to do with TikTok and more to do with bullying and harassment using social media.

Cellphones "created more issues than they did solutions" for students during the school day, Villanueva said.

"It's a distraction. I'd rather be TikToking or reading something else than being engaged in the classroom," he said.

The result of the revised policy halfway through year?

"I can tell you it has been significant," Villanueva said. "The difference is very palpable on the campus."

If there is an incident, such as two students scuffling, the inability of students to take a video and post it has decreased a perception that these things happen constantly during the school day, he said.

And, he added, the fight could the result of a social media conflict to begin with.

"We're not moving backward on that," Villanueva said.

The district's limitation on cellphone use and impact during the school day also an attempt to teach students responsibility is the use of their devices.

"How can we be better digital citizens?" he said.

Gov. Greg Abbott bans TikTok on state phones and computers, citing cybersecurity risks

Following the lead of several other GOP governors, Abbott said banning the social media platform, which is run by the Chinese company ByteDance, would protect state information from the Chinese Communist Party.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene ISD's new TikTok ban based on security concerns