8.02 Censorship
“Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one’s children is to teach them to swim.”
— National Research Council, Youth, Pornography, and the Internet
"Consumer Reports' (CR) latest tests of filtering software (June 2005) show that although Internet filters have gotten better at blocking pornography, the best also tend to block many sites they shouldn't. They also found the software to be less effective at blocking sites promoting hatred, illegal drugs or violence. So are we helping or hurting our students by filtering the information they can access on the internet? You cannot discus filtering with bringing the idea of censorship to mind. By deliberately blocking web pages from a persons view are we censoring the web? Filtering implies censorship. There should not be government censorship in education, but filtering is another story. You have to filter music downloads and porn in schools, In fact, if a school or public library gets almost any kind of government funds, filtering is required. The article "Library: We Don't Want No Filters" by Julia Scheeres discusses The Communications Decency Act and the Child Online Protection Act, and Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and their ramifications. The goal of these acts is to protect children from indecency and inappropriate sites. CIPA is requiring that schools and libraries protect its users from indecent material or lose federal funding.
Filtering is a good first step. It keeps the children from accidentally getting to a site that they should not be viewing. However, if a student wants to see something, they will find a way. While internet filters are a good idea, a filter alone is not enough to keep our kids from being exposed to websites which introduce kids to pornography or prejudice. Filters cannot be a substitute for parents and teachers' supervision and educating students about the appropriate use of technology. It is important that filters are used properly and teaching and understanding kids the role of propaganda. There are just as many INappropriate sites that get around the filters as there are appropriate sites that get blocked. I also think that because there is no filtering on many search engines--A child can put in an innocent term & get all kind of pornographic hits--although the SITES are blocked--the reference isn't so the material--the ideas are still out there
Another important step in protecting our students is the development, presentation, and enforcement of an Acceptable Use Police. If a district enforces a very detailed AUP, with consequences, offense severity etc. and couple it with good network software and an effective filtering setup there can be no ifs ands or buts coming from the affected students/parents. Information IS available to everyone, ultimatley. But we wouldn't let a kid leaf through Playboy in history class, either printed or in the net. We wouldn't because we have some standards by which we live.... and it is essential if we are going to allow students to use these resources that we develop policy based on those standards.
My opening quote stated that you have to teach a child to swim…I think that you can still teach the students searching strategies, and narrowing searches without worrying about obscene websites. I know that no filtering system is 100% foolproof, but I think that all schools should have some type of system in place. I say in a public domain--filter away
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