To filter or not to filter? That’s the question vexing school boards as they decide how narrowly to block access to websites like YouTube and Facebook, as schools’ use of technology grows.
In this Edweek article, schools discuss how closely they should follow the federal Children’s Internet Protection Act law.
“There are times [educators] believe [the law is] much more prescriptive than it really is,” says James Bosco, a project director for the Washington-based Consortium for School Networking’s Web 2.0 initiative. “But you do not want a situation when someone comes to a board meeting and says my kid came home and said the kid next to him was looking at pictures of naked girls.”
“We live with the specter of that occurring,” he says. “That’s why some people say, ‘Are we really protecting kids [from harmful content], or ourselves from potential problems at school board meetings?’ ”