Due to COVID-19, school has been virtual for the entire year for most students.l. Now, teachers nationwide are demanding students to turn on their cameras on during Zoom calls to mimic in-person school.

Being required to turn on your cameras during Zoom classes is unethical. Being forced to turn on the Zoom camera at home is an invasion of privacy.

The Stanford Daily surveyed 46 students across the U.S on whether or not students should have their cameras on. Two-thirds reported not being comfortable with having their cameras, and one of their reasons was about privacy concerns.

Educational blog, INDY k-12, posted a zoom etiquette graphic called “Using Video to Assess Student Attention in Virtual Class Meetings” that gained popularity on Twitter. This graphic talked about privacy, and how students may feel reluctant to show their living areas and home.

The fact that some teachers are making students turn on their cameras, even if they don’t want to show parts of their home, is pure absurdness and disrespectful.

Norman Eng posted a blog about a survey with their students asking if they felt comfortable with their cameras. Forty-Five students answered, and 24.4% were not comfortable with having their cameras on. One reason why students answered that they weren’t comfortable was due to being self-conscious, because there is an invasion of privacy.

Some students feel awkward showing their home and face to a whole class of possible strangers, thus teachers should understand and be considerate of their feelings.

If a Zoom bomb were to occur, students that are forced to have their cameras on have now exposed their identity to an unidentified and unfamiliar person. According to a USA Today post by Madeline Mitchell, In May 2020, the FBI received 240 reports of Zoom bombings, and they are still increasing.

Teachers like when students have their cameras on because it lets them know that the students are participating and engaging in learning. But, students don’t have to turn on their cameras to justify that they’re focused, teachers can determine whether or not students are learning by looking at their results on tests and assignments.

A way for students to not be obligated to have their cameras on and for teachers to be pleased with student engagement, teachers should ask students to respond to questions about the lesson in the chat to make sure students are still participating.

I strongly believe that the zoom camera regulation teachers are enforcing onto students is incredibly invasive, dangerous, and immoral.