Usually the public thinks of censorship in relation to books, however there is a growing censorship issue in schools and school libraries - overly restrictive filtering of educational websites reaching far beyond the requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). In a statement about Banned Websites Awareness Day, the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association, includes the following background: Tyler wrote, “It’s too much when I can’t even go on an informal website talking about breast cancer or sexual abuse because they have the words ‘breast’ or ‘sexual’.” Olivia added, “The other day I was researching birth control for my health class and it took me way longer than it should have to complete my essay because the web filter wouldn’t let me open any websites including Planned Parenthood.”
For this I had to change my topic to something I was not really wanting to learn more on.” I could not even get to the REAL website which gives information from the creator and what will happen next with the game. Gheff wrote: “Just recently I was doing a project on Super Smash Bros. Most students agreed with that sentiment. Nat wrote, “It’s censorship, plain and simple, when you can’t access more than a handful of news sites and some purely educational, not opinion-based sites.” And they resented how filters stymied their ability to do online research on a range of subjects - on plants, for example. Students pointed to a host of popular sites that were blocked, such as YouTube, Buzzfeed, Wattpad, Tetris, Instagram, Google Translate, Wikipedia or streaming music sites like Pandora. They complained how “ absurd,” “ ridiculous,” “ stupid,” “ suffocating” and “ creepy” they thought their school filters were. In response to our 2011 question, students generally used their comments to express a deep frustration with the web filters at their school. 28, and the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week taking place all this week, we’re asking this same question again:Īre web filters in schools still an issue? What websites, blogs and social networks are blocked in your school? How has this affected teaching and learning for you?
In honor of Banned Websites Awareness Day, held on Sept. Five years ago we asked students about the web filters used in their schools, and the question became the single most commented-on Student Opinion question we’ve ever asked.
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