Internet Access and Schools

Censorship, the Internet, and Schools

Describe two implications for schools from the CIPA policy rulings, and two reasons for opposition to the policy

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was legislated in the year 2000, obliging public schools and libraries to set up specific technology that restricts internet access to graphic depictions that are indecent, child pornography, or detrimental to minors (Finsness, 2008). One of the implications of these policy rules is that it infringes on intellectual freedom. This is in the sense that it goes against the First Amendment, as intellectual freedom is the right of every person to seek as well as receive information from all perspectives devoid of limitation. Secondly, there is the implication of impacting the capability of students to gain access to information they require for school (Finsness, 2008). Being in a fast-paced technological area and with students having to attain such skills for writing papers and obtaining knowledge, one of the implications of the policy is that it restrains students from such know-how.

There are reasons as to why parties oppose to the CIPA policy. One of the reasons is that several schools block extensive amounts of information that ought to gain access to in their own right. Further than filtering social media as a whole as well as social networking sites, schools increasingly restrict accessibility to any site that is interactive and collaborative. What is more, schools wrongly depend on filtering for coping with problems of cyberbullying, hacking, restricting access to websites and technology (Batch, 2014). The subsequent limitation to experiencing difficult and perplexing websites and of the use of collaborative implements and platforms signifies a vital misused occasion to ready students to be accountable users, consumers, and creators of online content and resources (Batch, 2014). Restrictions on access to the extensive internet-based resources in the course of students' developmental years are closing doors to forthcoming prospects. A second reason for opposition to the policy encompasses the lack of skills and competencies (Batch, 2014). The filtering under CIPA limits students to acquiring skill and competencies in digital and media literacy. In the contemporary, acquiring and understanding such skills is essential for university, profession and life in general. In turn, this has an unfair impact on students, as there are those advantaged with full access at home while the others are disadvantaged with lack of internet at home and filtered access in school (Batch, 2014).

Provide an overview description of four different censorship solutions that schools have exercised or adopted

Schools have adopted and exercised solutions to censorship. One of the solutions is making a tag or placing on a restricted list that necessitates parental consent. Parental involvement is key and schools listen to parents when they consider some books unfitting for the children. Schools Secondly, voting whether a book ought to be banned or not, is another solution schools have espoused. For instance, such voting is undertaken by the school board. In particular, voting is good as it takes into account the perspectives of all. Third of all, teachers are allowed to check the sites and allow access if they consider such information not to be harmful but rather collaborative for the children. The fourth one is that college libraries provide service to young adults and are as a result more tolerant on liberty to read. However, numerous college libraries do have barred and secure shelves or stacks where unfitting materials such as Playboy are set. School libraries may adopt and exercise a comparable policy (Hu, 2004).

Discuss the use of AUPs in K-12 in the U.S.

K-12 schools are making use of internet acceptable use policies (AUPs) to take into account the problems and worries encompassing the internet. Majority of these policies are established at the district or school level. Some of the issues of concern that are encompassed in acceptable use policies include online behavior, the integrity and reliability of the system, different areas of liability and the quality of the content being considered. Lastly, it is imperative to note that the violation of these policies by k-12 schools leads to the loss of internet access (Flowers and Rakes, 2000).

Select one of the seven case studies. Discuss which censorship response or responses apply to that case study

Case #3 - Restrictive Software

The high school principal proposes software for the library media specialist to restrict Internet access to select sites, preventing browsing and wandering. She asks the library media specialist to identify "safe" sites. The rest of the Internet will be "off bounds." You are the library media specialist.