Website Filters in our Schools
The internet is an endless network of information; however it is not without its dangers, which is why website filters should be used by schools. Many people have been arguing lately over whether or not we should use website blocking software and firewalls in our schools. The answer to this should be very obvious. When you step back and take a look at all the good that these filters do, you realize that we need them in our schools. By using these filters, we make sure our children are not exposed to inappropriate content and media, we make it easier for students to conduct research, and we make sure the internet is not distracting our kids from learning.
When students look things up on a search engine, they are assessing everything on the internet that has anything to do with what they typed into the search box. Many do not realize that they could unintentionally open an inappropriate website. To add to this, there are many people on the internet that mean our children harm. These people sit and wait for unsuspecting victims to wander into one of the...
The first benefit that would result from censoring the internet would be the protection of the mind. When children are doing homework online, they frequently get distracted by the presence of other websites. This often interferes with their progress. In cases of teenagers, the websites they are commonly sidetracked by are pornography websites. Pornography has negative effects on the brain because it makes people lose their innocence and promotes v...
It seems unlikely that there is a school librarian out there who has not encountered a problem with--or railed against--the presence of CIPA-mandated filters on school computers. My own career so far has allowed me to experience a full range of experiences with school computers, from a filterless library to an overfiltering situation so egregious that my journey to have it resolved culminated in suing the school district that employs me—Knox County, Tennessee. I just discovered, in fact, that a Google search for “internet filtering in schools” lists the ACLU litigation for which I was a plaintiff, Franks v. Metropolitan Board of Public Education, as its second hit.
Kids now want to be more independent and have more freedom which might scare some if not most parents. A lot of parents look at the internet as a dangerous tool and not a tool where their kids can have some freedom. Although parents need to realize that they can’t protect their kids from all ...
I don't think that web filters are too restrictive, but they don't block the right things. One example is my school's web filters blockage of coolmath.com, a math learning website because one part the site includes an active chatroom. The web filter doesn't block a gaming website known as Friv. I believe that a teacher should have access to the web filter so a student can go to them and ask for permission to go to a site that's relevant to what they are studying in class but would be blocked universally on the school network. This should also work so if a student is on a gaming site the teacher can block it right away and bring the student back on topic. The teacher should then be able to let the school know about it so they can universally
“Children start using the internet at the average age of three and most to spend twice as much time online as their parents” (Ward, 2013). Through the information age, the internet has become an invaluable tool. We have information at our fingertips in record time, but not everything on the internet is appropriate for everyone to see. Pornography, hate speech, and writings meant to incite violence are making their way to children’s computer screens every day. Scary, but we can change this. Internet filters can change this. Personal computer filters exist today and will help prevent children from accessing inappropriate material, but children also use the internet away from home. Libraries, schools, and community centers all offer internet services to children, but are they safe using these resources? The federal government should require by law that all public or government-funded computers have filters to block the access to material deemed inappropriate or objectionable for children. This would help protect children from exposure to inappropriate materials outside of their home.
"Congress Begins Taking Action to Stop Child Pornography." The American Center for Law and Justice E-Newsletter. 22 May 2014 .
With the internet being a vast source of information, it’s really easy to think that you can find everything you need all at one place. We have search engines on the web like “Google” and “Bing” that are filled with links that can take you to any website that have the information you’re looking for. Without knowing how to properly research on the internet, kids might mistake articles on the internet to be factual when it might not be fully relatable to what they are looking for. They might even stumble upon articles that don’t even apply to what they are actually looking for. There’s a lot of websites on the internet that may seem to have accurate information, their credibility doesn’t shine through so brightly. Wikipedia is a good example of an unaccredited website. Despite the fact that it is an encyclopedia with immense amount of information, all of it might not be at utmost true. Wikipedia is a website that is open for everyone to alter information and could risk of using any sort of information as factual. Kids might mistake it for a good resource, but might not know it so. Children should learn to not only use the internet as a source but use other sources such as an encyclopedia or a newspaper. If a child is working on a research paper, what if they didn’t have access to a computer? How would they continue to find information along the way? Learning how to research before turning to the internet for help is the best option and later they can learn to use the internet accurately.
There are hundreds of different search engines for people to examine. From toddlers to senior citizens, the world is opened up to them from one site. Most people turn to search engines to look up their wanted information. Just about anything can be found on a search engine. Typing an innocent phrase, such as “funny picture” on Google, can lead to websites and images containing vulgar language, sexual innuendos, and provocative illustrations. In this day and age, it seems that adult content is looming around every corner in an adolescent’s life, creating an almos...
“How internet filtering is hurting Kids†is an article that helps support this idea. In this article it says how in the past couple of years they have pivoted to a connectivity gap. This hurts them because it hurts schools that do not have high-speed internet connected. To try to fix this problem Obama, in 2013 launched connected initiative to try and connect 99% of schools to broadband internet. In despite of all of this, internet policies still continue to deprive children from being digital consumers. Therefore this is the topic that most students have a disadvantage in this.Which means when they try to apply for a job in the future and it has technology included they will not be able to
The invention of the internet has been one of the major advances of the modern world. It has allowed people from all over the globe to communicate with each other and ideas to be shared. In addition to this it is a free platform. Unlike television and radio it doesn’t cost anything to put your idea on the internet, making it a base of personal expression. This freedom coupled with the global access attracts around a billion users worldwide. Unfortunately, just as easily as the information is produced it is abused. The internet, although mostly used appropriately does harbour all manner of illegal activities. These range from phishing scams, trying to steal someone’s personal details, viruses, malicious code that attacks a person’s computer and websites that are morally questionable or illegal under Australian law. To combat this, the Rudd government has started action to impose an internet service provider level internet filter. An internet service provider is any company that provides internet services to its customers. Most notable of these is Telstra which is one of the top internet service providers in Australia. This filter will prevent a list of websites, the blacklist, from being accessed in Australia. In theory this is an excellent plan, but in reality, once implemented it will have little effect on preventing the illegal activity which occurs on the internet. The major arguments against the proposed filter are, cost of the filter, the ineffectiveness of the filter to stop illegal activity and the possibility of the blacklist expanding to block anti-government websites.
I believe that World Wide Web restrictions should not be allowed. I believe that they are not helpful to the people that use the World Wide Web. I feel that the restrictions on the World Wide Web at school are too strict. At school most sites you try to view are prohibited and they are totally harmless sites. I feel that at school the only restrictions that should be put on the World Wide Web are restrictions to pornographic sites. Even these sites should not be blocked because some harmless sites have web addresses that would seem like a pornographic site but end up being a totally harmless site. With the block at school some of these harmless sites are blocked and therefor limiting the web user who made need information from sites like these. Most students know better than to visit pornographic sites at school. So this block that forbids students to visit most sites just hurts the students learning ability in some cases. There should not be a block on the World Wide Web at school and if a student does visit a pornographic site then they should be prosecuted or disciplined.
Many opponents say that Internet censorship can protect their children from accessing bad websites which have a lot of violence and sexual content. Also, they believe that these materials can be harmful to teenagers and make them addicted. However, parents are the ones who should be completely responsible to prevent their children from accessing bad websites, such as pornography, and it is not the government’s responsibility. According to Opposing Viewpoint reporter Adam Thiere, “parents should be the ones to impose censorship on children, not the federal government.” Besides, some websites, which have educational information about safe sex or disease awareness, were blocked. Everyone has the right to use the Internet to find answers to private questions. In addition, teenagers can educate themselves. For example, when I have some questions about sex or sexually transmitted diseases, I cannot ask my parents because of my embarrassment. Thus, the Internet is the best choice for me. Nevertheless, when I searched those questions on the Internet at home, they were restr...
Many children have access to the internet and are able to search up anything on Google. As with any type of media, there are positive effects and negative effects. Some of the negative effects of the internet for children are that ,since, children and adolescents are more or less technologically savvy than their parents, they are able to search about just about anything and and talk to just about anyone on the internet, this can lead to some very dangerous situations. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “89% of adolescents report using a computer, 61% report “surfing the net,” and 14% report seeing something that they do not want their parents to know about.” (Villani, 2001) 14% of adolescents reported seeing something that they did not want their parents to know about, this shows how unsupervised the internet is and shows how the internet can lead adolescents to become secretive and , maybe, even violent. Again, this leads to deviant behavior that the child learned from the internet. In addition, according to the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “... a profile of the recent school killers, noted that almost all were computer-savvy and frequented sites where they could obtain violent, anarchist-oriented material.” (Villani, 2001) This shows that websites that have violent material on the
Internet needs to be in the classrooms of schools in the new millennium. If you can’t get on and surf the internet by yourself then you are looked down upon. The internet is the new big thing, it’s technology at it’s best. That’s why we must keep our students in schools educated and updated with it, the internet has endless possibilities. Students would never run out of information for their reports in school, they can either go to the library and look for the information they need and hope that the book they need is not checked out, which could take up to a couple of hours. While on the internet you can find the information in the matter of minutes. Many books are outdated and you would be lucky to check one out if everybody in the class is doing the same report! The internet keeps up with current information coming in every day of the week. I don’t think students abusing their time on the internet is a problem, I think we need teachers or someone to monitor where they are going on the internet. There are programs advisors can download that can block out any material not suitable for students at schools.
Internet has become a new equipment to improve violence and disobedience. Teenagers can have easy access to the pornography sites or adult’s chartrooms. As a matter of fact recent researches has shown that Despite the potential negative effects on children using the Internet, more than 30% of surveyed parents had not discussed the downside of Internet use with their children (Internet Advisory Board, 2001), and 62% of parents of teenagers did not realize that their children had visited inappropriate Web sites (Yankelovich Partner...