I’m in two minds over this. I wouldn’t want to see any harm result from such situations, but on the other hand, this is a fairly benign surfacing of what could potentially be much deeper problems that if not addressed could well lead to such harm in future. I believe a lot is done in schools these days around self image and building resilience in that regard, but I think there it would be good to establish guidelines for teachers, along the lines of “If you use iNaturalist for school projects with students, be aware they are interfacing with the wider public, and as a result their conduct will be viewed and responded to. If they are showing bullying behaviour, the teacher will be messaged and should respond appropriately.”
This is really no different to being out in the community for a school trip to the zoo, or to a reserve. Their behaviour reflects on the school, and as “guardians during school hours” teachers/schools are responsible for their behaviour and conduct. They are also responsible for taking the complaints of the public and responding responsibly to them. Would they send the students out into a shopping complex without instruction on what is safe, proper and expected conduct, particularly when in school uniform!? Use of social media and applications like iNaturalist are just as serious and potentially problematic, but are not treated as so.
Just because they are kids doesn’t mean that they can only get up to no good on iNat during school time! I have seen a couple of cases on iNat of derogatory IDs associated with photos. I seem to recall one was actually aimed by a uni student at a lecturer! When I reached out to the student, they just took it down and made an excuse/apology, but still!
How would one determine consent from an observation? My ethnobotany class students were excited by the idea that iNaturalist will attempt to identify any organism using the computer vision. Despite my directive to only make observations of plants, some students still wanted to see if “any organism” included Homo sapiens, as in photos of their friends. After a quarter century of working with students out here, I realize that most do not see themselves as “one species among many.” The few students that did not follow directions had the consent of their friends to take their image and post it - much as they do for social media. At the same time they came away with the realization that they too are an organism, one of many on the planet. My responsibility as an instructor includes discouraging misuse of the app and monitoring my student’s posts for anything inappropriate.