Imagine this: you’re surfing the web, cruising along, looking up a topic of interest, when suddenly, BAM! The website you were intending to look over is blocked by the school’s web filter, Lightspeed Systems. Almost everyone in the school, student or teacher, can think of at least one time they were blocked by the school’s web filter. A web filter is needed for any school that supplies its students with computers or devices capable of accessing the internet, but often times, we over-filter.

It can be said that the school is filtering too much. The filter needs to loosen up if the computer is supposed to be more than just a simple device in which you can write papers on and have a copy of a textbook or two. To gain digital literacy and a sense of digital accountability, students need to be able to experience the internet. This will allow for students to make mistakes and manipulate their computer resource to the best of their ability.

“In college, nothing is going to be blocked,” senior Garret Cwalina said. We’ need to learn how to pay attention and do our thing…[and if we don’t do our work] we should be punished.”

Furthermore, it’s better for students to be able to make and learn from mistakes with time managment or work schedules now, rather than later in college or the workplace. In a way, the school is coddling us by not allowing us to make mistakes or access other parts of the internet.

“Fencing out Knowledge” by Kristen R. Batch, which details the impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 years later, points out that a filter that blocks too much is detrimental to learning. Not to mention, the filter has social consequences for students, as overfiltering often culminates in a deficit of moral or ethical instruction to guide online conduct.

“I think the old system was fine,” junior Brandon Cassavaugh said. “I understand [SLSD] has a responsibility to block inappropriate content, but this is overkill.”

In addition, there is wisdom in the saying that strict parents create sneaky kids, and strict filters create sneaky students. By filtering out too much, students don’t have the opportunity to get in trouble or make mistakes, so when they are finally allowed to procrastinate or deviate from work, they’re high off the freedom. They’re like a kid who’s strict parents didn’t allow them to do anything, so now they’re participating in everything, creating a trail of outcomes worse than what would have happened otherwise.

To combat the web filters, many students try to get around the filter with a phone, by using a computer at home, or using a clever proxy. Ultimately, it’s up to the student if they want to do their work and use their time responsibly.

“They keep blocking stuff, [which] just keeps motivating people to find more sites,” senior Adam Kurtz said. “It doesn’t help.”

Be that as it may, one needs to acknowledge the fact that the school must have a filter because of CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act., which aims to protect minors from inappropriate content. CIPA basically states that schools subjected to CIPA and those that want to receive discounts offered by the E-rate program must have an internet safety policy that includes protection measures such as the blocking or filtering of internet access to pictures that are obscene, child pornorgraphy, or harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). Despite this, CIPA does not regulate internet filtering software, which is created by private companies and does not decide what content is appropriate for students and what is not, which often leads to the filtering of sites that don’t fall under the criteria set by CIPA.

“If the goal is to limit the access of inappropriate material, then I would say it has worked, but it has also blocked a lot of information that could be helpful,” social studies teacher Mrs. Jennifer Wlodek said. “When the students are looking up information in class, or when I have them watching YouTube, or for homework, materials are often inaccessible. These are educational materials, like topics on terrorism. They’re subjects I’m teaching.”

The pros to a web filter are out there, such as the fact the filter gives teachers confidence that their students will not encounter harmful content or inappropriate images, and the fact that some websites simply need to be blocked due to their inappropriate subject matter.

“Students are young adults and need to learn online responsibility,” technology coach Mr. Joseph Bresich said. “The filter helps with that and needs to be somewhere between blocking too little and too much.  The filter is always changing due to students trying to access inappropriate sites.”

Some additional cons to the filter exist, too. The filter often times blocks out too much information, data relevant to research being conducted by students, and websites that don’t harm students, like Humans of New York which simply provides insight on the lives of everyday New Yorkers.

In fact, in “Fencing Out Knowledge,” Batch makes the point that “Schools block a wide range of constitutionally protected content using overly broad filtering categories that go well beyond those defined by CIPA.”

“[The filter] makes a better door than a window,” Cassavaugh said.

Moreover, Batch goes on to state how “Over-blocking content as a means of managing the classroom, limiting exposure to complex, and challenging websites, or curtailing the use of interactive platforms has numerous unintended consequences for students…effectively limiting the acquisition of digital literacy, which increasingly is recognized as a fundamental requirement for all citizens to participate fully in a globally competitive and democratic 21st-century society.”

“I think that the web filters are…doing more harm than good, like in a sense that half of the time, things that we need and websites that we need are blocked, including web sites that teachers want to use,” senior Giuliana Augello said. “A teacher can request something to not be blocked, but then when we need it, it is blocked.”

“To a certain degree, [the filter] helps, but for the most part, it’s just a burden to what we learn. Most of the sites that we need are blocked. I think it should be limited to what it used to be, and just the websites that are completely inappropriate should be blocked,” senior Garret Cwalina said.

We can also fix the filter by allowing more appropriate websites. We can look into more research about the educational uses of social media platforms and assess the impact of filtering in schools. Another way to solve the problem is to allow students to put in justified requests to unblock websites.

Opportunities that allow students to prepare to be sensible consumers, creators, and users of content and resources from the internet are being filtered out, even though the school uses a moderate web filter that falls on the stricter side of the spectrum. I think we all understand that a web filter is a requirement for any school. Nevertheless, a web filter that allows students to develop digital literacy, grow, make mistakes, and promote responsibility is a must.