Each day, many students in CK open up their Chromebooks and get to work on various activities. Some do projects, others do homework, and a few even watch videos that can help them understand difficult subjects a little more. A common issue for most of these students are the school’s internet filters.

“We can’t really do anything on a Chromebook due to how locked up and secured it is” Brandon Rodriguez, senior, stated during the recent ASB forum. The internet filters were never a specific topic during the forum, but they were mentioned.

Even so, the student body as a whole has issues with the filters.

“It is kind of annoying,” one student said. They requested to be anonymous.

Internet filters are legally required by federal law. The Children’s Internet Protection Act states that in order to receive federal funds to pay for internet and internet discounts, public schools and libraries must enact some form of filters that would protect children from pornography or other “inappropriate material” that would harm them. Students must also be protected in chat rooms or social media networks. The federal requirements are simple, but they also allow for each district to determine their own additional stipulations.

This has often led to abuse. One district blocked National Geographic due to inappropriate images, along with any mention of Russia, China, or Iran because of the conflicts with those countries. Others came under fire for blocking LGBT resources.

As a matter of fact, our school blocks the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) due to the fact it is considered a forum. AVEN is the main online resource for asexuals and their partners. The official website for the University of Georgia (the country) is blocked because it is porn according to the filters, as pictured above.

The people in charge of the filters do have an explanation for these instances.

Deborah Bryan, the director of Information Services & Technology, states that the internet filters simply uses the mandates of the of the CIPA. However, she does elaborate on the school’s additional stipulation.

“[The] CKSD internet filter limits access to sites in order to comply with CIPA, that show little to no instructional value, or uses significant amounts of the bandwidth of CKSD’s connection to the internet,” Bryan states.

She also says that students do have the ability to explain why a website should be unblocked to the librarian or administrators so they can submit a request. It would also be good to explain that the school does not control the filters on YouTube videos. That is entirely due to YouTube’s algorithms.

Any of the algorithms, YouTube and school, cause issues.

“They make projects hard,” the anonymous student said. They encounter a blocked website up to three times a day on a normal basis. That number exponentially grows when students need to spend an extended amount of time one the computers.

More filters are enacted by the day.

Google searches with the term “game” are also blocked. However, when you search “proxy websites” or “porn”, those searches are not blocked. Even if most of the results are blocked, enterprising students are capable of going through each link that appears until they find one that is unblocked. 

An image filter has been enacted, which prevents students from being able to view many images, including educational ones such as maps. That does not protect students, as if they scroll far enough they will find images that include nudity or drug use.

Many websites in foreign languages are blocked, including websites that students studying these languages need to access. Several local news sites, although not officially blocked, become so twisted up due to the filters that they might as well be. 

There was also the time that the school filters blocked Google itself.

The school needs filters. No student should be able to access porn on the school WiFi, or go onto their social media. That is expected.

Blocking Bing, however, is not.