On January 1 of this year, a new law went into effect in Illinois that requires students to disclose their social media passwords to the school district if they are suspected of cyber-bullying or harassment, regardless of whether or not it takes place during school hours. The law, Public Act 098-0801, states that such actions violate the state’s code of conduct for schools and that students must provide access to their accounts if requested by a teacher without any direct proof that misconduct has taken place as long as they have reasonable cause. The law definitely has the right intentions, but is ultimately worse for the state than it is good.

It’s no secret to anyone that people are terrible pretty much anywhere you go. It’s also not a secret that even though normal people are terrible, teenagers are way worse. Surely the teenagers in Illinois are no different. After a long, hard day of school, they probably get on the internet and act decidedly not excellent to each other like the rest of the world. Illinois’ newest law is only trying to stop the abuse these kids fling at one another from getting too out of hand. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a horrifically high number of students take their own lives because of the vicious bullying they were subjected to online.

According to the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, suicide is the third leading cause of death. The Journal of American Medical Association reported that cyber-bullying is more strongly related to suicidal thoughts and actions than traditional bullying.

The intentions of the law are definitely in the right place. Its goal is to decrease cyber-bullying and harassment in-state and save lives along the way, but it goes against the very principles that this great country was founded upon.

As long as these awful children are attaching their names to the acid they’re spewing at their peers over the internet, they should be able to do it as they please. The first amendment makes it pretty clear that we can say whatever we want to each other without any fear of prosecution. The law states that children must give up their passwords or be subject to prosecution. The real kicker here is that the schools can demand passwords as they see fit. There is no necessity for a warrant. If the schools had the probable cause they cite when taking accounts, they could take it to a judge and easily obtain a warrant before taking these kids’ online lives away from them. All the act is doing is cutting out a third party whose interests lay solely in enforcing the law.

Taking accounts away from students based on nothing more than a hunch or suspicion of wrongdoing shouldn’t be allowed. School isn’t a job for students. They aren’t paying to get a public education and they certainly aren’t being paid for it, two things that would make this seem a little more reasonable. There is absolutely no way the state can shift constitutional wording around to make this look like it isn’t an unwarranted breach of both rights and privacy.

This is not to say that the law doesn’t have heart. The school systems only want to protect their students. The internet gives people more opportunities than ever before to spew poison and bile at each other. We’ve seen in the past that such actions can lead to self harm and suicide and you can bet that we’ll see it again. The only problem is that by censoring these kids on public forums that the state doesn’t even control, they’re teaching them that freedom of speech can be taken away for any reason that those in power see fit. By being awful little monsters to each other on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and other sites, these kids are, in a way, also being little patriots, and that’s something we can be both horrified and strangely proud of.