SEARCY, AR. (LP) —Are web filters in schools still an issue? What websites, blogs and social networks are blocked in your school? How has this affected teaching and learning for you? These are some of many questions students have asked. When asked, students generally expressed a deep frustration with the web filters at their school. They complained how absurd, ridiculous, stupid, and suffocating they thought their school filters were. Students pointed to a host of popular sites that were blocked, such as YouTube, Buzzfeed, Wattpad, Tetris, Instagram, Wikipedia or streaming music sites like Pandora. And they resented how filters stymied their ability to do online research on a range of subjects.
Olivia from Searcy High School added, “The other day I was researching birth control for my health class and it took me way longer than it should have to complete my essay because the web filter wouldn’t let me open any websites including Planned Parenthood.” In a statement about Banned Websites Awareness Day, the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association, includes the following background: “Usually the public thinks of censorship in relation to books, however there is a growing censorship issue in schools and school libraries — overly restrictive filtering of educational websites reaching far beyond the requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Students, teachers, and school librarians in many schools are frustrated daily when they discover legitimate educational websites blocked by filtering software installed by their school.”
Filtering websites does the next generation of digital citizens a disservice. Students must develop skills to evaluate information from all types of sources in multiple formats, including the Internet. Relying solely on filters does not teach young citizens how to be savvy searchers or how to evaluate the accuracy of information. Over extensive filtering also extends to the use of online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, etc. According to the American Association of School Libraries, 98% of schools in the United States use filtering software to restrict student access to certain online content. These filters are meant to prohibit students from accessing content that may be “obscene or harmful to minors.” This includes pornography, violent images or videos, racist or anti-Semitic content and more. Some school administrators also use filters due to concerns regarding cyber bullying, scammers, spammers, data breaches and illegal file sharing. Although CIPA was intended to protect children at school, there are concerns that the filtration guidelines set within the act are too broad, preventing sites that have the potential to be educationally useful from being accessed by students and teachers alike. The American Association of School Librarians has released public statements claiming that website blocking standards in public schools across the U.S. are too restrictive and that the guidelines do “the next generation of digital citizens a disservice,” as it stifles creative avenues for learning and inhibits student’s ability to learn how to determine legitimate and illegitimate content independently. The statement also claims that social media, which is blocked by most school filters, is a tool that can “make school more relevant to students and enhance learning experiences.” Some have suggested that schools do away with filtration software altogether, and instead teach students to be responsible digital citizens that understand the difference between safe and unsafe content. Others have suggested that teachers be given access to bypass codes that allow them to access certain content for the purpose of a lesson or demonstration.
