In today’s technologically-driven world, social media and YouTube are a part of many students’ lives. If these websites are so important to students, why does Southern Lehigh block them on the school’s network?
Under the Child Internet Protection Act, schools are required to block inappropriate content from their networks. Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit blocks inappropriate content for Southern Lehigh and many other local schools. The tech department communicates with them about any changes to make to the list of blocked websites.
“As the tech team we just forward requests for blocks or unblocks to the Intermediate Unit,” Mr. Erik Malmberg, IT manager, said, “ and they are taken care of within 30 minutes.”
Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit has set up categories of content which they have deemed inappropriate. If a website relates to any category, it is blocked by the filtering software.
“[Blocking is] based on the category which [the website] fits into,” Mr. Ken Jordan, Director of Elementary Education and Instructional Technology, said.
However, both Mr. Jordan and high school principal Mrs. Christine Siegfried see the value in greater internet freedom for students.
“I’ve seen some really cool presentations with Twitter,” Mrs. Siegfried said, “[and] I think there are a lot of educational things on YouTube.”
Mrs. Siegfried’s biggest concern about unblocking social media and YouTube is student safety. She’s also leery about how students would handle the new freedoms, given the ongoing problem with gaming this year.
“I wish we could get over this hump with the games,” Siegfried said.
Mr. Jordan echoes Mrs. Siegfried’s concern about safety but also asserts that unblocking these websites is a liability for the school district.
“We have to protect the integrity of the district,” Jordan said. “There are different value systems in the community, too, and we have to think about the whole community we’re serving.”
