The internet in schools: a mixed blessing?
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Nov, 1997

It would surprise many people to know that the most vile pornographic and violent materials are within the easy reach of your child when they are in a place that they once thought was safe: the classroom.

It hasn’t taken long for schools to realize the benefits of Internet access for educating children. But it is taking way too long for many schools to realize the great risk it poses for children.

Like many of this nation’s cities, there are safe places for children to play on the Internet and places we would not want them to get near. There are parks — and red light districts. In most places, the red light districts are far removed from the good side of town. Not so with the Internet.

In fact, children can be exposed to the most perverse pornography imaginable.  Everything from bestiality to child abuse can be accessed within only a few clicks for most children in the school computer lab.

It is true that the Internet allows our children to access a world of information that would otherwise be unattainable.  It provides our children with a doorway into the largest library in the world!  On the Internet, books of information are referred to as web sites.  By simply typing in a topic, almost instantly there is a long list of web sites that contain information about the topic you are researching.

The danger is that most schools do not filter the sites children can access.  Most have decided to rely on the supervision of teachers and a statement that the parent and child sign agreeing not to access inappropriate materials.

Let’s get real.

How can one teacher supervise a classroom of children on the Internet, especially when the teacher is instructed to do so without being intrusive by the Kentucky Department of Education?

At the present time, pornographers are not effectively regulated. They can provide any type of pornography to any age group via the Internet.  Because of the unregulated access porn companies have to the Internet, most of Kentucky schools’ current Internet policies are the same as putting a porno magazine between every book in the library and instructing the children to not look.

Although the ultimate responsibility must always lie with the teacher, parent and child, a filtering program would provide another wall of protection between our children and the intolerable pornographic sites that are strategically placed to intentionally lure viewers.

Filtering programs are inexpensive and very effective in blocking sites that parents would find objectionable.  So why aren’t more of Kentucky schools taking advantage of these products?

Maybe it is simply because parents haven’t told their local school officials how upset they would be if their child accessed pornography at school.

There are at least two counties that are taking advantage of the available technology filtering programs provided.  Rockcastle and Bourbon County schools decided that they should do whatever they could to better protect their children from seeing sights that would be forever embedded in their minds.

There is really no valid reason to not use everything within our power to protect our children from these repulsive and damaging images.  Before we send our kids to school, shouldn’t we be sure that the Hustler has been taken off the shelves of the library?
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst