14yo odd quiz at school- do I complain

Just because something is 'official' and widespread is no guarantee whatsoever that the people driving it are doing so from pure motives.

Kinsey perpetrated vile, horrific abuse on very young children under the guise of 'research into early sexual experience' - and he still has a large institute proudly bearing his name. It's like the equivalent of establishing a 'Jimmy Savile Institute'.

I didn't. I realised I was gay aged 41. You speak for yourself.

There may be kids who don't want to 'out' themselves yet as gay or bi. Or there may be some who are simply not sure yet.
I'd say at 14 not everyone would be comfortable discussing their sexuality with school. And the one about sexual experience? Surely people won't answer that honestly?
I think the nude images one is a safeguarding issue so I guess I understand that.
But they shouldn't be forced to label themselves a certain sexuality if they are not comfortable doing so.

Oh, I know that many 14yos are having sex - but this not only legitimised and validates that, but is also highly inappropriate for the great many 14yos who wouldn't dream of having sex.

They wouldn't ask all of the children what their favourite illegal drugs are - going with the assumption that they all will be using them - would they?

As I said before, I'd have no issue with them asking whom they fancy or have a crush on - and this may well correspond with their actual sexuality when they're older - but asking what their 'sexual orientation' is, with the assumption that they will all have one - i.e. questioning them about sexual activity - is highly, highly inappropriate.

Pretty sure that teenagers have been fucking around with that survey for donkeys' years.

Beats me why they think any of it is accurate or reliable.

GDPR also has a lot of exclusions written into around government agencies, particularly around crime and health.

which takes us to who is conducting this research? Who is the data controller? Is it a government agency or a university or commercial research team?

Completely agree. If I'd been asked then, I wouldn't have known what to say. I'd fancied an older girl at school, then went on later to fancy boys.

(and what sexuality is it if you fancied the fox from the Robin Hood cartoon? :) )

To an extent.

You have to look at this from the point of view that if the data was hacked, could you identify someone from the data?

If you had data which said a 13yo male Muslim with two brothers, you could if you worked at the school probably identify the individual, but someone outside of the organisation would not be able to.

GDPR also has a lot of exclusions written into around government agencies, particularly around crime and health.

Linking it with medical records with an ID does make it identifiable, but I think they could probably use the above point to exclude themselves.

I take exception at these sort of questionnaires (couldn't see the relevance of being asked my sexual orientation when booking a covid jab), but it may be difficult to use GDPR against it.

Data can be identifiable not just from name, address and email. School, year group, sex, sibling profile, race, faith, etc can together make children identifiable. Plus the survey mentioned by PP was proposing linking with adult medical records which mean they were not anonymous.

Yes, the hold alot of sensitive data but this isn't holding it, this is processing it for a survey which is going to be optional i.e. explicit, informed Consent not some, 'opt out' permission slip via your parents.

GDPR is very much about if the data filled in makes someone personally identifiable. If the data contains no personally identifiable information then they can do whatever they want with it. In a school environment someone stating their sexual orientation won't make them identifiable and thus control over the data is much less and they can reuse the data however they wish.

If name, address, email address etc is used GDPR comes into play and the data is much more strictly controlled.

Personally I always dreaded that something like this may have happened when I was at school. I wouldn't have wanted any different treatment due to my sexual orientation.

30 years ago GDPR didn’t exist. Neither did the computing power to link up desperate data sources each containing huge amounts of data on individuals.

And I am sure your own school are very careful what they do with that data. But not all schools are so careful. And sometimes people assume things are being done acceptably when they are not. People can be funny about surveys - "It's anonymous so it must be fine" is a common naive assumption. So is "everyone else is doing it so it must be fine". I'm surprised you're so dismissive because a "minor" parental concern can be like a "canary in the coalmine".

As a school governor do you get any GDPR training? If you don't I'd arrange for some. 30 years ago it might not have mattered, it very much does now.

I remember doing something very similar in psre class about 32 years ago. Although gender orientation wasn't a question, smoking, sex, secual orientation were definitely on there.

I'm assuming this is anonymised data?

Concerns about children giving informed consent about the use of their personal data - including data about the sexual orientation of those below the age of consent isn't minor.

The use of this type of personal data, knowing who's behind the data capture and their plans / resource opportunities is important. Checking that the questionnaires aren't being used to promote acceptance of certain contested political ideologies is a legitimate concern.

You'd hope that those responsible for schools (SLT & governors) are open to using their critical thinking skills to investigate and reassure parents - rather than dismissing legitimate issues as "so much consternation about something so minor".

Why don’t you think that? In Scotland several councils have opted out of the survey because they don’t think it appropriate.

Schools already hold a lot of sensitive data about the students they have …I doubt they have made a massive faux pas with this.

I’ve never heard so much consternation about something so minor

Why is spending class time just sitting doing nothing a suitable use of time?

It's not new or part of a trans agenda, I filled out something very similar every year at secondary school in the early-mid nineties.

If the survey is of no interest to them, then being told to just sit there is probably of equal interest and a suitable alternative

In terms of consent, to be free consent and not coerced the pupils would have to have been given another option of activity of equal interest to them, ie not to have been discouraged by being told to just sit or do something they didn’t like or singled them out. Of course if the other option is school work then why aren’t all the pupils doing that instead?

The teacher had no right to say not to use the prefer not to say option. I might complain to the teacher who said that.

pp's have made a good point about GDPR especially as a school governor @ExtraOnions The survey collects "sensitive personal information about children" under GDPR (one of the most demanding categories of data!) and if it's done badly the school carries the can.

You can't just assume "kids talk about sexuality etc in the playground so it's all OK" and you can't assume everything about the survey protocol and data management is OK either.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/childrens-information/children-and-the-uk-gdpr/

They are pointless, all my DC and their friends just filled them out randomly as they all decided the questions were actually nobody else's business