SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A recently implemented Illinois law now gives school officials the authority to demand social media passwords from students as a means of combating “cyberbullying.”

But many parents, students, and experts believe the measure is a gross invasion of privacy.

“It’s one thing for me to take my child’s social media account and open it up, or for the teacher to look or even (ask) a child to pull up their social media account,” parent Sara Bozarth told KTVI. “But to have to hand over your password and personal information is not acceptable to me.”

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

The new law allows school district and university officials to demand a student’s social media credentials if they have reasonable cause to believe the student violated a school’s disciplinary policies, regardless of whether the activity occurred during school hours or on campus, according to the news site.

The law, ironically named “The Right to Privacy in the School Setting Act,” went into effect Jan. 1.

“I think it’s an invasion of privacy to the extent that if a student wishes to share something with a university it should be to their discretion,” student Nathan Sterling told KTVI.

University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor Robert Drechsel also believes the law is too much.

“When you have authorized (schools) to require you to turn over your access to your own social media accounts, and presumably rummage through them until they find what they think is going to be evidence of some violation of some kind of code, I think that’s a serious intrusion,” Dreschsel told Channel3000.

“I don’t think that’s constitutional,” he said. “To me, that seems like an overreach.”

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

UW-Madison senior Elliot Parens said he thinks most students would agree.

“I could see how that could be a good way to prevent cyberbullying,” he told Channel3000. “But what people do with their social media is entirely their own business, whether or not it is hurting somebody.”

“I would never, ever, give out my password, because sometimes there’s sensitive information there, like credit cards or my phone number,” Parens said. “It crosses a boundary that I’m not comfortable with, and I can’t imagine too many students here would be comfortable with.”

“It’s understandable that schools want to get some kind of control over (cyberbullying) and use some kind of tools to address it, but this I a pretty blunt tool,” Drechsel added.

A poll on the KTVI site with 556 respondents shows 71 percent oppose the law, about 18 percent believe school officials should only have access to school-related accounts, and a meager 10 percent believe access to student internet accounts is warranted if there’s a serious policy or safety violation.

“This is preposterous!” Arariel posted on KTVI. “This has nothing to do with trying to prevent cyber bullying or sending a message, but has everything to do with schools trying to be invasive.

“I am so glad I am not in school to put up with this stupidity. Even if I was, they’d have to arrest me because I’d NEVER give them my passwords.”

The news site HLNtv.com also solicited feedback on the new Illinois law, and nobody who posted in response thought it was a good idea.

“Wow! So if you’re a school you can have access, yet there are a lot of parents out there who have lost a child and are not even allowed to access their deceased child’s account,” Brittney Sherrill wrote.

“Once again, the government is crossing the line,” Ann Johnson added. “Every day we live more and more like George Orwell’s ‘1984.’”

Joyce Nord seemed to agree.

“Clear invasion of privacy and lawmakers crossing the line,” she posted.