High-School Students Respect First Amendment More Than Their Elders Do—Especially Teachers

With speech codes
chilling free expression on college campuses and Twitter
warriors presiding haughtily over online speech, it seems a bit
gloomy out there for fans of the First Amendment. But a new survey
from
the Knight Foundation finds teen support for free speech
is high. For the first time in a decade, U.S. high-school
students are more into the First Amendment than adults, and their
appreciation for it goes up with their level of online media
consumption. 

The national survey of 10,463 high-school students found 90
percent think “people should be able to express unpopular opinions”
and only 24 percent think “the First Amendment goes too far” in
guaranteeing free speech, free assembly, and freedom of religion.
Asked the same question in a recent Newseum Institute study, 38
percent of American adults wanted less free expression.

“This marks a shift: 10 years ago students (35 percent) were
more likely than adults (30 percent) to say that the First
Amendment goes too far,” the Knight Foundation notes. And in 2006,
45 percent of teens and only 23 percent of adults thought
so. 

Millennial teens are now more likely than their teachers to
support free expression also, particularly when it comes to school
matters. Of the 588 teachers simultaneously surveyed by the Knight
Foundation, the majority disagreed that First Amendment rights
should apply to school activities. Fifty-seven percent of the
teachers said student newspapers shouldn’t report on controversial
subject. And a whopping 67 percent said students shouldn’t be
allowed to express anti-teacher or school administrator sentiment
on Facebook without penalty. 

Despite teachers’ anti-free speech feelings, students who had a
class explaining the First Amendment were more likely to support it
than those who had not. Free speech support also grew with a
student’s digital media consumption. “The most supportive students
of all are heavy digital media users who also have had a class
explaining the First Amendment,” said Eric Newton, senior adviser
to the Knight Foundation’s president. 

Digital media consumption is, unsurprisingly, huge among
high-school students, with the number who read news online daily
jumping from 31 percent in 2006 to 71 percent now. The proportion
of students who consume digital content daily through a mobile
device jumped from 8 percent to 62 percent. Other survey
highlights: 

• Less than one-third are “very concerned” about the privacy of
  information they post on the Internet (compared to 48 percent of
  adults), while 42 percent are “somewhat concerned” and 21 percent
  are “not too concerned”. 
• 83 percent of high-school students sgree that “people should be
  able to send online messages and make phone calls without
  government surveillance” 
• 60 percent don’t think the government should be allowed to spy
  on digital messages or phone calls even in the process of
  “identifying possible terrorists”

Ken Paulson, president of the Newseum Institute’s First
Amendment Center and dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s
communication school, said the study “reminds us of the need to
pro-actively teach what young people engaged in social media know
intuitively: First Amendment freedoms are at the heart of the
American experience.”