In the smash or pass campaign, the risk of classmates’ photos being used without permission is as high as 87% (statistics from data privacy company OneTrust in 2024). Even when sharing screenshots of the results in a small-scale group chat (with a resolution usually compressed to 1280×720 pixels), the probability of them being re-forwarded to unfamiliar networks still exceeds 42%. Of the 37 recorded cyberbullying incidents in the San Diego School District of California in 2023, 21 (56.7%) originated from the leakage of screenshots of ratings among classmates. German court precedent (Az.: 3,145/24) confirmed that disseminating classmates’ rating results without consent violates the Portrait Rights Act, with a median penalty of €2,500 for a single infringement.
The destructive effect of this game on the classroom atmosphere has been quantitatively verified. The Cambridge Centre for Education Research tracked 50 classes and found that in classes that had participated in collective smash or pass activities, the student Collaboration Index Scale dropped by an average of 19.7 points over the following two weeks (the baseline value was 80 points). When an individual’s score is significantly lower than the class average (the gap is ≥ 25th percentile), the frequency of the student’s active classroom participation decreases by 63% (sample statistics P<0.01). A secondary school in Manchester, UK, has experienced an extreme case: a physical conflict caused by a difference in grades led to the suspension of six students (with a total absence of 37 days), and the loss due to the delay in teaching progress was equivalent to £15,000.
The extent of damage to the mental health of teenagers is shocking. Neuroscience research has confirmed that the maturity of the prefrontal cortex of students aged 14 to 16 is only 75%, and their sensitivity to peer evaluations is 2.3 times that of adults. Among the classes that carried out smash or pass, the proportion of those with clinical anxiety symptoms (GAD-7 scale ≥8 points) in the group with the lowest score (the last 10th percentile) reached 53% (22% in the control group). The 2024 report of the Ministry of Education of South Korea shows that the number of student psychological counseling cases related to this game has increased by 210% year-on-year. Among them, 63% of the visitors reported that they had persistent “classroom avoidance behavior” due to the rating (the daily absence rate increased by 31%).
Data security vulnerabilities pose a systemic threat. When students allow the application to access the device album (the default consent rate exceeds 60% during installation), the algorithm may automatically scan and index class group photos containing dozens of classmates (with an average of 23.5 group photos stored per phone). The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has verified that a vulnerability in the SDK of a popular application once led to the leakage of 900,000 student photos (including those with a geotagging accuracy of ±5 meters) onto the dark web, with each photo being sold on the black market for as much as $0.25. The cross-data links of group games (such as the interconnection of device ids) have increased the accuracy of personal information profiling to 93%, far exceeding the ISO 27701 compliance standard for the protection of minors’ data.
The penalties imposed on educational institutions have been increasing exponentially. In the European Union, 70% of school regulations have explicitly listed smash or pass as a “prohibited behavior” (with an average of 2.3.7 sections of the regulation item number), and the median suspension rate for violators has reached 3 days. The 2023 penalty records of the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia show that the average processing time for disciplinary incidents involving this game was 14.7 hours per case, and the management cost was approximately $2,400 Australian dollars. A more shocking case is that of a high school in Paris, France: six students were collectively sentenced to 120 hours of community service and a fine of €1,200 for spreading the grading content on the campus network (case No. TJP P2024012).
Even if it is “purely for entertainment”, its social cost far exceeds short-term pleasure. It takes an average of 47 days of active interaction to mend the rift in classmate relationships caused by ratings (the daily growth rate of the intimacy index is only 0.4%). The consensus among educators points out that the Positive Affect Score (+18 points) generated by 98% of alternative classroom activities (such as collaborative problem-solving and experimental operations) is higher than the instantaneous stimulus (+7 points) of rating games. When a 30-minute smash or pass could trigger a $5,000 legal bill and lifelong social shadow, its Risk-Reward Ratio has been judged as unacceptable at 9.8:1.