Filters in Public Schools and Libraries
Filters are something that have frustrated me from the beginning. I understand the importance of protecting children from explicit materials, but nine times out of ten, the filtering systems in schools and public libraries filter out information that is helpful. I remember doing a project on breast cancer in school, and I wasn’t able to look at some of the pages, which was so frustrating to me. Was it the word “breast”? Was it, god forbid, a picture of how to check yourself for breast cancer? That is some important information to have access to, especially for young women.
I've been doing fieldwork at a high school library, and while I was looking up book reviews, again, some of the sites I wanted to use were blocked. I honestly couldn't figure out why book-review web sites were being filtered out. I was not a happy camper.
I never had filters at home as a child because my parents trusted me and talked to me about what kind of sites to avoid (I also used my common sense). The bottom line? Using filters is more damaging to children because, once they are not forced to use filters, they don’t know how to avoid explicit material and use the internet safely. We need to teach children to use the internet responsibly, and that often isn’t possible with, and is made more difficult by, filters.
Protect children by teaching them good habits.
