Overzealous filters hinder research

Study: Overzealous filters hinder researchBy Corey Murray, Associate Editor, eSchool News
October 13, 2005

The internet-content filters most commonly used by schools block needed, legitimate content more often than not, according to a study by a university librarian. Her report was presented at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Pittsburgh last week.

Better communication between technology staff and classroom teachers is the key to ensuring that school and library internet filters, installed as part of a federal effort to protect children from inappropriate online content, do not preclude students from accessing legitimate educational materials, the new study found.

Presented Oct. 8, the study chronicles the difficulties confronted by two educationally diverse groups of English students assigned to conduct term-paper research with filtered internet access in a high school media center.

Using the experiences of this school as a typical example, the study's author, Lynn Sutton, director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, finds that internet filters are apt to block legitimate educational content. Tech-savvy students, meanwhile, argue that administrators should have more faith in their judgment and ability to deal with inappropriate content, and they blame the school--not their teachers--for prohibiting them from conducting sound, unbiased research, the report said.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 90 percent of K-12 schools today employ some sort of web filtering technology in adherence with guidelines set forth as part of the Children's Internet Protection Act, the five-year-old law that requires libraries to install filters or surrender federal funding, including eRate discounts on telecommunications services and internet access.

But, based on her findings, filters overstep their bounds in many cases, Sutton says. And, whether teachers simply are too busy to follow up with technology staff to request access to legitimate sites, or--worse--technology staff aren't responsive enough to the needs of classroom teachers, too often educationally useful sites aren't removed from these filters' block lists, despite the ability of administrators to remove them at the local level.

eSchool News online.