Students and Internet Filters

If your local school uses filters to keep students away from harmful or inappropriate web sites you may want to read this article . Kids are getting around filters in a variety of ways. They are using means as sophisticated as setting up their own proxy servers at home and as simple as using the cache of search engines like Google. There are a wide variety of web sites with information on getting around Internet filters and students know where to find them. In the mean time the adults in the building will find that they have a difficult time getting to legitimate resources. One school librarian I know told me that her school’s filter prevented her from getting to the ethics page of the American Library Association.

I remember a conversation with one of my students when I was teaching high school. He said to me "if you try to pit your technology against the raging hormones of 800 teenagers you will lose." And honestly he was right. Students are going to get to inappropriate web sites. They may do it from home when there is no one to watch them or they may do it from school where, in theory at least, a teacher should be noticing what they are doing. They will do it in spite of filters, proper use agreements, or other attempts are restrictions.

So what’s a school to do? The short answer is educate. Students need to understand why some sites are inappropriate and others are ok. They need to know how to judge the reliability of a web site. They need to learn why hate sites are unreliable and harmful. They need to know why pornography is degrading to women (and men) and harmful to creating healthy relationships. They need to understand how to use computers and the Internet for research and that those purposes come first at school. Someone needs to teach them those things. Just trying to prevent students from “doing bad” is not the same as teaching them to go good.

Students need to know what information is safe to share on a blog and that there is a time and a place for blogging. Rather than banning all blogs, as some schools try to do, they could be using blogs as tools for developing writing skills. Teachers and other adults in the building need to educate themselves in how to use the Internet first. I worry that a lot of school rules and tools like filters are there out of fear and ignorance. Fear and ignorance are what schools exist to eliminate not perpetuate.