Don't Fence Me In

"Fences are made for those who cannot fly." -Elbert Hubbard

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law mandating "technology protection measures" be enacted by schools and libraries which receive certain categories of government funding.

While few would argue against filtering access to sites that are obscene or display child pornography, determining what is "harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors)" is a bit more challenging.

Teachers and students frequently find themselves unable to access information because their school districts and public libraries block legitimate websites containing red flag words like "sex" or "weapons," regardless of the context in which these terms appear.

In June 2003, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Online Policy Group (OPG) released Internet Blocking in Public Schools: A Study on Internet Access in Educational Institutions. According to a press release, "The study found that blocking software overblocked state-mandated curriculum topics extensively -- for every web page correctly blocked as advertised, one or more was blocked incorrectly. "

On Wednesday, January 13, 2010 ISTE-SIGMS is hosting a webinar, "Fight the Filter," at 8 pm E.S.T. Presenter Buffy Hamilton will help participants "explore the reasons for the current state of restrictive filtering policies and discuss concrete strategies for effectively challenging and changing filtering policies."

Librarians, classroom teachers, and other interested educators should plan to attend this timely and important discussion.

Our children need clear, consistent safety policies and guided practice in good digital citizenship...not walls or fences.



“Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depth; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought..." -Robert Green Ingersoll






"Don't Fence Me In" by ryancboren

O Selfless Saviors

#567; O Selfless Saviors

I bookmarked this cartoon in November, then became sidetracked by other things and never got around to the posting I had envisioned.

Since 1983, Joel Best has been tracking reports and complaints about contaminated candies given to trick-or-treaters. Best, professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, assures concerned parents that "Tainted Halloween candy is a contemporary legend, spread by word of mouth, with little to support it."

Why bring this up in December, long after costumes have been packed away and pumpkins relegated to the trash heap?

While Halloween is a once-a-year occurrence, children and teens can access the Internet daily. Alarmed by news reports of online predators, unsure of how to navigate an unfamiliar digital landscape, parents and, in many cases, school districts, turn to heavy filtering as a protective measure for students.

What do adults fear? In the Final Report: Friendship section of the Digital Youth Project, lead author danah boyd spells it out:

"The same 'stranger danger' rhetoric and 'terror talk' that limit youth from interacting with strangers in unmediated public spaces (Levine 2002; Valentine 2004) have also taken hold online. There are school assemblies dedicated to online dangers, primarily the possibility of sexual predators. Mainstream media, law enforcement, teachers, and parents reinforce the message that interacting with strangers online is risky. While the percentage of teens who have experienced unwanted sexual solicitations has declined through the years (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006), the fear that youth—and especially girls—are at risk has increased (Cassell and Cramer 2007; Marwick 2008). At a deeper level, the public myths about online 'predators' do not reflect the actual realities of sexual solicitation and risky online behavior (Wolak et al. 2008). Not only do unfounded fears limit teenagers unnecessarily, they also obscure preventable problematic behavior (Valentine 2004)."

To some, the solution rests, ironically, in reliance on technology.

Enhancing Child Safety (released by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States) has this to say regarding filtering and monitoring software:

"The Task Force remains optimistic about the development of technologies to enhance protections for minors online and to support institutions and individuals involved in protecting minors, but cautions against overreliance on technology in isolation or on a single technological approach. Technology can play a helpful role, but there is no one technological solution or specific combination of technological solutions to the problem of online safety for minors. Instead, a combination of technologies, in concert with parental oversight, education, social services, law enforcement, and sound policies by social network sites and service providers may assist in addressing specific problems that minors face online. All stakeholders must continue to work in a cooperative and collaborative manner, sharing information and ideas to achieve the common goal of making the Internet as safe as possible for minors." -Final Report, Executive Summary

Rather than "paranoia-inducing hypervigilance," our children need instruction, guided practice, supervision, and open lines of communication when engaging in online activities.


"After all, children are our future," and technology is part of their future.




"Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice." -Holbrook Jackson



Related posts:

Al Upton & Jabiz Raisdana:
A Heavy Armor (March 14, 2008)
Listen (March 20, 2008)
A Confederacy of Dunces (March 27, 2008)
Spindles (April 5, 2008)

Filtering & censorship:
A Question of Censorship (October 3, 2007)
Only Those Places (January 18, 2008)
Unsuited to Age Group (February 17, 2008)
The Loftiest of Cowardice (September 27, 2009)

The Loftiest of Cowardice

"Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice." -Holbrook Jackson

A recurring motif in literature is the desire to gain forbidden knowledge, which always results in a punishment of some sort: acquisition of understanding intertwined with loss of innocence .

Re. Pandora:

"But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered, all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door..." Hesiod, Works and Days

Re. Eve:

"... but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,lest ye die.' And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and ate, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves things to gird about." Genesis 3:3-7, 21st Century King James Version

Banning & censoring books, filtering the Internet may appear to protect our children, but at what cost?


Filtering & censorship:
A Question of Censorship (October 3, 2007)
Only Those Places (January 18, 2008)
Unsuited to Age Group (February 17, 2008)

Al Upton & Jabiz Raisdana:
A Heavy Armor (March 14, 2008)
Listen (March 20, 2008)
A Confederacy of Dunces (March 27, 2008)
Spindles (April 5, 2008)


"You can cage the singer but not the song." -Harry Belafonte



"Pandora" by John William Waterhouse, Wikimedia Commons

A New Way of Seeing Things

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

More than forty years ago, I celebrated Independence Day in Oxford, England.

I had never been outside of the United States before, but when the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford, during the summer between my junior and senior years in college, presented itself, I didn't hesitate.

In many ways, it was a life-altering experience.

Although computers were in existence during the '60s, they were not commonly available. Learning about other countries meant books or travel; the printed word or physical contact.

During my trip, I interacted with American students from all over the U.S. We found that our lives were quite different, our ideas of home, family, religion, politics often amazingly dissimilar.

There were numerous chances to travel - we saw London, Stonehenge, Stratford-on-Avon. Our group crossed the Channel to explore Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam, Trier, Cologne. I can still see in my mind's eye, even after all these years, the bright Impressionist paintings, majestic Rembrandts portraits, postcards pasted on the wall by Anne Frank in the Secret Annex.

Our students today have an unparalleled opportunity to connect with their peers in other states and other nations, to explore the riches of museums, galleries, and historic sites, to step outside of their local communities and join the global community.

Restricting access to resources by blocking and filtering imposes limits that may not always be in the best interests of the children and young adults in our educational system.

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” - Frank Herbert




"ChristChurch.3" by Lamees.(L.Y.S)

Beyond the Wall

"The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law enacted by Congress to address concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers." -FCC CIPA Consumer Factsheet


Parents, educators, the government: all wish to ensure that the world is made as safe as possible for our children.

Computers with internet access have become commonplace in schools and homes. With this increase in opportunity for connectivity has come a parallel increase in concern about the perceived dangers of cyberspace for minors. Legislation requiring the blocking of sites deemed inappropriate through the filtering of school district networks was intended to provide protection for students and peace of mind for their parents.

Unfortunately, this approach hasn't worked well for a number of reasons:

• no filter can catch every objectionable site, therefore relying on filters generates a false sense of security
• filters block many valuable resources. For example, a science class researching viruses would find any sites mentioning "sexually transmitted diseases" inaccessible, including sites maintained by the Federal government
• it is possible to get around filters by using proxy sites. Many students have become adept at circumventing the safeguards put in place to protect them
• while teachers may request that certain sites be unblocked for classroom use, the process can be frustrating and discourage technology use

But the biggest argument against depending on filters as the primary means of protection is that many students spend time outside of school on computers, unsupervised or inadequately supervised. Without instruction in safe use and good digital citizenship, children and teens leave themselves open to danger, though perhaps not the dangers that many adults fear.

According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center Fact Sheet

A growing number of people are promoting Internet safety education in an effort to help keep youngsters safe from Internet sex offenders. But some of the information in their lectures, pamphlets, videos, and web sites does not reflect what researchers have learned about the important features of these crimes.

There is a widely quoted statistic (from the 2005 University of New Hampshire Youth Internet Safety study) that 1 in 7 youth are threatened by "online predators." In fact,

• These solicitations did not necessarily come from "online predators". They were all unwanted online requests to youth to talk about sex, answer personal questions about sex or do something sexual. But many could have been from other youth. In most cases, youth did not actually know the ages of solicitors. When they believed they knew, they said about half were other youth.
• These solicitations were not necessarily devious or intended to lure. Most were limited to brief online comments or questions in chatrooms or instant messages. Many were simply rude, vulgar comments...
• Most recipients did not view the solicitations as serious or threatening. Two-thirds were not frightened or upset by what happened.
• Almost all youth handled unwanted solicitations easily and effectively. Most reacted by blocking or ignoring solicitors, leaving sites, or telling solicitors to stop.

A more immediate danger, one which is estimated to affect as many as 43% of our students, is cyber bullying. Unlike face-to-face bullying, the online version can take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Harassers, emboldened by electronic anonymity, can choose to prolong and extend their activities, drawing in others and leaving the chosen target with no safe haven.

The United States Congress has recently acted to bring CIPA into line with current research regarding student online safety:

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) are extremely pleased that on September 30 [2008] Congress passed, as part of S. 1492, an update to the Children's Internet Protection Act which requires schools participating in the E-Rate program to educate students regarding appropriate behavior on social networking and chat room sites and about cyberbullying. ISTE and CoSN have advocated for this approach for many years and we are pleased that Congress has now ratified our position. Education, not mandatory blocking and filtering, is the best way to protect and prepare America's students.

"Education, not mandatory blocking and filtering, is the best way to protect and prepare America's students."

We need to teach our children how to recognize danger, make good choices, and behave responsibly online. Beyond the wall lies the future.







"Beyond the wall" by Guiseppe Bognanni

Only Those Places

"Access only those places on the Internet which are intended to be used for appropriate information retrieval, correspondence, and communication. Appropriate is defined as morally correct, free of antisocial behaviors, pornography, and any form of abusive or obscene behavior." -Secondary Student Agreement

More than 20 students, grades 7 through 12, were suspended today for violating our district's AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). The infractions covered a three-month period; miscreants lost computer and pass privileges for two weeks. Their crime was to use a website that allowed them to circumvent the school's internet filter. Most of them had been paying illicit visits to MySpace or Facebook.

School districts across the country remain convinced that blocking inappropriate websites is the best way to keep our children safe from harm and focused on learning. Yet students continue to maneuver around school filters.

When I did some research on the issue of internet filtering and the CIPA legislation, many of the sites I found were authored by hackers offering advice on how to beat the system. Obviously, many of our middle- and high-schoolers have found the same information. By going to a website based proxy like ZTunnel, individuals logged on to the Internet can make an end run around watchdog filters. Without prior cyber safety instruction, these users are vulnerable to whatever dangers might lurk in the digital world.

In the introduction to his safe digital and social networking presentation wiki, Wesley Fryer reminds us that

"Generally adults help young people learn to drive safely before giving them car keys and turning them loose on the streets of the world. Young people also need guidance and adult assistance to learn how to safely navigate the virtual environments of the 21st Century. Schools must be proactive, rather than merely defensive, in helping students acquire the skills of digital citizenship needed today and in the future. Simply banning read/write web tools on school networks is an inadequate response: Educators must strive to learn alongside students and parents how these technologies can be safely and powerfully used to communicate and collaborate."

Fryer's wiki provides a rich assortment of multimedia resources, including PowerPoint slides, podcasts, articles, and links all addressing the need for safe digital social networking (DSN).

Julie Lindsay describes "digital citizenship" as "knowing how to behave appropriately and responsibly with regard to technology use." Her grade 9 unit called Digital Citizenship in Education outlines 9 elements essential to digital citizenship and provides a project outline and scoring rubrics. Also mentioned in Julie's blog is the free CyberSmart! K-8 curriculum, which provides worksheets and guided activities addressing issues like cyber safety and digital manners (citizenship).

Describing the frustrations of his students when encountering blocked sites, Clarence Fisher states

"I am still vastly against even the idea of filtering. Filtering content is a messy, inexact, and inappropriate solution to their being "bad things" online. I find it offensive and pure and simple censorship; something democracies should abhor. But as I think about our situation more, I am also worried. The Internet service that our school is provided with comes via a Manitoba government service called MERLIN. They provide highspeed service to many hospitals, libraries and schools. So in the end, it is my democratically elected government that is restricting the access of my students to information and content."

How should the education community define "appropriate information retrieval, correspondence, and communication" in the 21st century?



"The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in." -William Taylor Copeland

"The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it." -John Locke


"None Shall Pass" by Clearly Ambiguous

Virus

"A bunch of germs were whooping it up
In the Bronchial Saloon.
The bacillus handling the larynx
Was jazzing a gag-time tune,
While back of the tongue in a solo game
Sat Dangerous Ah Kerchoo.
And watching his luck was his light of love
The malady known as Flu." -Cal Beacock

The gift that keeps on giving: one (or more) of our children has shared a virus with me, thankfully a cold and not the flu.

Although I'm a veteran teacher, I do occasionally fall victim to the germs that are sprayed, wiped, and sneezed on us daily. In a K-12 Library, you can't even assume that it's the little ones who are the culprits, since none of the students seem to be inhibited when it comes to distributing viral largesse.

Coincidentally, three eighth grade science classes have begun doing research on viruses. The teacher conferred with me beforehand and we decided on some appropriate medical sources. Friday was their day in the reference section of the LMC. Today, we all headed to the computer lab to continue searching on some sites that the teacher and I had pre-selected. Neither the adults nor the students were pleased to find that many of the web links were blocked by our district filter. The IT tells us that we can request specific addresses be temporarily unblocked, but that teachers do not and will not have override privileges. In some instances, I resorted to using Google cached information to get some facts or statics for the increasingly frustrated researchers.

The experience was as unpleasant as having the flu; and none of the students were "infected" with a desire to participate in similar projects in the future.

What are we trying to protect them from? And what are they losing in the process?


“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.” -Clarence Darrow

"influenza_virus" by changturtle

A Question of Censorship

"The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." -Henry Steele Commager

I find it both ironic and disturbing that even as the ALA conducts its yearly Banned Books Week promotion (September 29–October 6, 2007), there has been an increase in educational blogging about incidences of filtering and censorship in school districts.

Despite being caricatured as "one-dimensional bookish-types", librarians are frequently on the front lines defending First Amendment rights and intellectual freedom. The American Library Association's "Freedom to Read" statement warns that "Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad."

Today, Tim Stahmer, in one of a series of posts on censorship, reminds us that "Schools are supposed to be institutions of learning where students gain the knowledge and skills needed to successfully live and work in the real world. And then we spend large amounts of time, effort, and money trying to block that real world from leaking through the electronic walls."

In other words, if teachers and librarians are not given the tools to provide instruction in the safe and ethical use of technology, how will our students evolve into effective collaborators, communicators, researchers, and critical thinkers?

Karl Fisch describes "two levels of override" which allow for some discretionary unblocking by his district's staff members. The trade off is that although teachers can gain access to "forbidden" sites like YouTube, students are no longer be able to "watch videos on their own, or find videos, or work on presentations that include videos, or upload their own videos."

Clay Burell takes filtering to its logical conclusion: if search engines permit students to click into pornography and other inappropriate data, then all search engines should be blocked.

Or, perhaps, all technology should be banned, blocked, filtered, suppressed, eradicated, wiped from human consciousness.

"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still." -John Stuart Mill

"Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice."
-Holbrook Jackson

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot." -Eugene Gladstone O'Neill



Illustration by Isaac Mao