Internet Censorship In Schools

The word censorship is from the Latin word root of censere, which means to give an opinion or expression to be judged upon. Censorship is the restriction of certain material, and due to its expression it is seen offensive to someone else. The origin of expression of censorship can be tracked back to the Roman Empire when Roman officials assessed the conduct and attitudes of other Roman citizens. The Roman government viewed that in order to have a strong government, the behavior and conduct of the peopled had to be changed according to what they thought was correct. Censorship continued to be a controversy over time. It remained a controversy over time, through many empires, the age of Enlightenment, World War II, and even today. As censorship progressed through the ages it still continues today. Today, censorship occurs at schools. It occurs in libraries, classrooms, and even in student publications. Even though censorship can occur to a certain extent at schools, students’ First Amendment rights are still protected at school. The First Amendment protects freedom of expression, speech, press, religion, and assembly. Students are allowed to express themselves freely at school as long as they do not affect the education and as long as it is not an activity supported by the school system.

Imagine having to turn off all electronics and not being able to use it for a week. Technologies, such as the Internet, have provoked questions about the effects it has to students overtime. Although Internet users have become dependent to the internet, schools should not participate in national “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because the Internet is an exceptional source of information, the Internet is used for instant communication, and Internet users have shown increased signs of social interactions.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for changes in the district facilities, policies, and/or procedures for internet access to the Richter Park School for students, parents, and community. It is clear that in today’s schools, internet access is perceived as a common feature; however, there are still some school districts who are consistently changing policies, procedures and facilities to improve

In contrast, the only barrier that teachers and students face when it comes to technology is accessibility. In certain areas and social classes, students do not have access to technology, mainly internet access, at home. Which may limit the use of technological devices to a school setting. There are many programs in place to give students access to internet outside the classroom, and hopefully allow students access to educational tools to allow them a better education.

Patrick Cloonan, teacher at Manheim School District, reported to Hi-Lite Online that while some websites like YouTube have inappropriate content, it can also have beneficial materials for students. In the text it said, students have better research without web filters. This confirms that students could be asked to do an assignment and the websites that are restricted are not able to be used by those students (“NYT”).

Knowledge is power. Using knowledge, people can reshape society and the world as a whole, changing it for the better. However, gaining access to the necessary wealth of information requires a full education: people should be taught multiple ideologies and topics from an unbiased perspective. They must receive access to various viewpoints in their entirety. Teaching only one worldview strips students of their ability to truly analyze the world and its issues, because they cannot look beyond the one restrictive narrative they learned and therefore cannot develop their own perspective. Censorship hinders schools, institutions with the purpose of informing students and helping them develop their beliefs. Therefore, schools should not practice censorship when selecting literature for students because censorship obscures the purpose of literature, because censorship fails to expose students to a variety of ideas, and because censorship removes students’ ability to develop unique opinions and worldviews; education should provide an unbiased view of the world and many ideologies, so students can take their own stance on various issues rather than blindly following what they learn.

While elementary and middle schools have obvious needs for restrictions, Internet access at the high school level isn't as black and white. High school students are sensitive to their given rights, yet are officially minors under the law; teenagers are ever nearing adulthood, but are sometimes viewed as immature. So, high school administrators are challenged with designing an Internet policy that meets the educational needs of the students and the moral demands of society. Although software is being designed to "censor" the content of the Internet, student trust and responsibility might be a more reasonable route.

The word censor comes from the Latin term censere which means to appraise, value, judge ("Online Etymology Dictionary”). According to Wikipedia and Dictionary.com censorship is defined as a practice of filtering the media and suppressing the unwanted parts.

While at school, has there ever been a great idea for a project or an assignment by a student and they can not wait to start on it at school before they lose their idea? Unlucky for them, their school has web filters set up which inhibit them from finding any quality information on the internet other than the basic, generic sites every other kid gets offered. This issue presents a common occurrence in schools across America and it needs to receive termination all together. The use of the internet persists as a freedom given to almost all Americans, but schools limit student’s first amendment rights by carrying out the use of web filters.

After doing the research and looking for the answers to my questions I realized that there is many complicated parts to censorship. Censorship is also needed to an extent because there are some things people do not need to be exposed to until they are in there teens. But also because adults fear ideas they end up thinking they need to protect children and adolescents from it. I also concluded that labelling of books is only good for elementary school libraries and only as a suggestion to the students of the types of books they should read.

Columbia Station High School understands that monitoring of Internet activities and technology resources usage are major concerns. Students, while free to use the technology resources, must take ownership of their

There has been much debate about the commonwealth’s and the Australian communications and media authority’s campaign to give the Internet censorship that is not required. For reasons such as freedom to talk about ideas, to talking to people around the world. In china there are estimated to be around 30 thousand police surfing the web, covering up websites the government does not want you looking up. Things such as just searching up “human rights” will bring you to a page that says you cannot access, and this is mainly the cause of communism.

The Constitution of United States grants an American the right of free speech and expression which they often take for granted. Yet, the people who are educating others about those rights are rejected from utilizing those very same rights. Teachers in the U.S are being denied their First Amendment right to freedom of speech by limiting how they may express their views on educating students, restraining of what they can put on blogs or letters, and limits on how they might use social media.

On the website, Technology in Education, a teacher who was not named blogged about how hard it is to teach a lesson because some many websites are restricted. She went on to describe how things have gotten better, but she goes on to a quote Melinda Anderson’s from her article about internet filtering in schools. “We sometimes think too much about the content that we block, and we limit their opportunities to succeed, explore their passions, and discover their strengths and talents.” There is no doubt that if a teacher is having problems accessing vital information, it brings up the question of how much important information are high school students missing out on especially for those without access to the internet at

Did you know that 25.3% of people encounter at least one form of internet censorship while using the internet and the number of people that are affected by internet censorship on any given day is 1.72 billion? (“32 Amazing Internet Censorship Statistics”).This is because of the censorship problems here in America. Censorship is defined as the act of “examining books, movies, letters, etc., and removing things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc,” according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. However, censorship has now evolved to not only protecting, but blocking the flow of ideas. Censorship also gives companies power to fire workers for stating their opinion. Our first amendment gives us the freedom of speech. Is censorship taking that away?