Preventing access to unwelcome websites has been common government tactics in countries like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia who have extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world. Most of the blocked sites are about sex, religion, women, health, politics and pop culture. Social sites such Google News, Blogger blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, MySpace, Pandora, Yahoo! Messenger, Flickr etc. are also blocked as well. If these countries see the need to protect their people from these sites by restricting them, then we must, to an extent, protect the children we are responsible for from some of these sites, by restricting their use especially while on school grounds.
The Restricted Internet Options basically controls the access privilege of certain internet pages. It is all about the system administrator allowing visits to few websites and preventing the rest. For many schools this is based on the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 1999. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law enacted by Congress to address concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers. In essence, the act (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html ) call for all school libraries receiving federal funds to put in and use blocking/filtering software to stop students from viewing material considered destructive. It is believed that without restriction on some of these sites students are less likely to concentrate on what they are being taught; schools therefore need to be careful about what they allow students to access on school grounds.
In researching for this blog I was surprised to find how many people were of the opinion that filtering the web restricts the flow of knowledge, restraints education and creates a society where free thought is feared, not encouraged; one article suggested that “censoring produces a generation of people that are a product of Government endorsed information” It is my view however that blocking websites is a great way for the schools to secure the fact that their laptops and computers are being used for educational purposes only. Think of all the illegal downloading, emailing, gaming, instant messaging, and other explicit material they could access without the filter. Interestingly, research has proven that attempts at censoring ideas often add to the attraction of the targeted materials, which, in turn, has often given them a greater audience. Students are coming up with new ways to evade censorware, evident in the numerous websites geared at teaching students how to bypass restrictions. This means that we’re not stopping kids from doing mischievous things online but in fact motivating them to keep their network activity hidden from the educators who are supposed to be helping them navigate the information age.
While I believe that censorship in school are necessary, sites that provide meaningful information for students shouldn’t be blocked. The problem I find is that there are often some sites that will get blocked that shouldn’t be; sites such as those that really educate about drugs, sex and violence. Needless to say various types of mandated filtering software now eliminates sources of information for students using library and school computers for research papers and projects. Students who can afford home computers end up with an advantage, since more resources are available. We need to be cognizance of the fact that computers are tools, and as tools, they can be used properly or improperly. As teachers we have the responsibility to put things in place to protect the students from themselves. Students don't need to be checking facebook, watching youtube, or chatting on IM during class. In the same breath, there are numerous programs online that can improve their academic performance. Similarly, sites like smart.fm are genuinely useful for learning languages.
For many teachers the filtering of internet information can be annoying and frustrating. Personally, even trying to find a recipe online at work can prove to be a hassle. The problem lies in the fact that censorship efforts may impact readily available materials, given the internet's potential to instantly redirect, encrypt, and repackage information. A few such cases were noted for English teachers who kept getting blocked trying to access the book “Moby Dick” online. There is also instance a school's systems security manager blocked the social bookmarking site delicous.com reason being that it can be use to search for porn.
I believe that teachers should have different access to the internet than the students, which would allow them to access educational sites other than those listed by the school and to also decide the extent to which they can use things like web 2.0 tools to make the learning experience more fun for their students. The reality is that we can’t be expected to increase the use of technology in classrooms as mandated by “No Child Left Behind” if we are going to be restricted on where we can source our information; we can’t be expected to creatively reach our students with the technology they are exposed to outside of school if we ourselves cant access it within the walls of the school.
As government and schools continues to rationalize censoring internet in schools as a way to “protect” the students, inevitably the only real solution is to educate the students as to how to critically, and even morally evaluate the sea of information that is now instantly available from around the world. With adequate education and information there should be no fear. To say “it is forbidden” is not enough, we have to be able to clearly, rationally, and convincingly justify our resistance."Given the limitations of filtering technology, the best way to protect children is to teach them how to use the Internet. A software program simply cannot do that" (New York Time 1998).
Credits
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Bypass-Internet-Restrictions-From-School-Or-Work&id=730214
Credits
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Bypass-Internet-Restrictions-From-School-Or-Work&id=730214
