School Internet Restrictions: How Much Is Too Much?

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Have you ever tried to open Spotify or SoundCloud during the school day to listen to music while doing homework, but found that nothing will play? Have you ever tried to scroll through Instagram to kill time during your lunch period, just to see that nothing will load? Have you ever clicked on an article for a school assignment, just to find that the school WiFi has blocked the website it’s on?

Schools block websites for obvious reasons. One part of their job is to make sure that students are in a safe environment, so blocking pornographic or otherwise inappropriate websites is essential. According to research by the American Association of School Librarians, 98% of schools filter their content, and for good reason. In this age of technology, kids can have any information they want right at their fingertips, so making sure that they don’t have complete access to inappropriate or distracting sites is crucial. In addition to blocking school-owned devices, 51% of schools said they filtered personal devices as well. Here at John Jay, students log on to a specific WiFi network that blocks websites the administration has deemed inappropriate.

While I believe some restrictions on students’ internet use is necessary, I think the school often takes it too far. The limitations that John Jay puts on its students’ web use is excessive and leaves its students frustrated, sometimes pushing them far enough to start petitions against these restrictions. The websites and apps that John Jay blocks aren’t just games or social media, but also harmless music streaming services such as Spotify and SoundCloud, and some news websites like Vice and Buzzfeed. While some restrictions are absolutely necessary, most are just overkill, which is why John Jay should lessen their web filters to compromise with their students.

The first problem with web filters is that, sometimes, students don’t have access to sites that they need to use. Once, for a school project, I needed a picture of a jellyfish. I figured it would be easy to find one online, and I did, but when I tried to insert it into my project, a pop-up message appeared informing me that the website had been blocked because it was considered “pornographic.” Many students are familiar with the website Overtime, where students can create sports highlights of their own high school athletes. Students are not only encouraged to write for Overtime, but it’s used in many classrooms as well. The catch, though, is that students can’t access it from John Jay’s WiFi. In addition, in my journalism class, we are supposed learn about the media and press. However, Twitter is blocked. Journalists use Twitter to find news stories, locate sources, and engage with a large audience through the internet, all of which would be extremely useful in a high school journalism class. However, because of the suffocating restrictions John Jay has put on its students’ internet use, we can’t use it. Things like this happen way too often, with students needing an article, photo, video, or access to a website, but not being able to reach it. This not only causes exasperation among students, but can also hinder their abilities to do work. In the end, these extraneous filters do more harm than good.

I mentioned previously that some news sites and music streaming services were blocked, but most of the websites that are cut off from John Jay students are social media platforms. However, not all social media is bad. As stated previously, Twitter, while conceived as a site where people can keep up with their favorite celebrities, is almost essential for journalists, and thus, a journalism class. Students these days spend a lot of their time on social media, so why not integrate it into their education too? That is what teachers in the Albemarle County school district in Virginia are doing. The principal of Burley Middle School, Jim Asher, went on Edutopia.org to explain that he started a Twitter account for his faculty with scheduled chats and discussions as a way to embrace social media both in and out of the classroom. In classrooms, teachers can share student work through the school’s Instagram page and Twitter account. Social media is also a way for students to get more connected with each other, as some use it to stay up-to-date with their friends, get word out about event around town, and share ideas. While school is primarily about receiving an education, it’s also about building a hard-working, respectful connection between students. Social media is known for bringing people together, no matter the distance between them, so why do schools feel that it’s inappropriate for this connecting and sharing of ideas to be happening in school?

Kids know more about technology than most of their parents do. This is the generation of technology, with kids as young as nine having access to iPhones, iPads, and laptops. In a time where kids are practically born knowing how to use an iPad, what makes schools think that their filters are doing the job?  At a school in California, students sold a workaround to the filters to other students for $2. In Indiana, students reprogrammed school-issued iPads within a day of receiving them. At a middle school in New Jersey, students were able to get past their schools Facebook ban almost immediately. When one middle schooler was asked by his father how he’d gotten onto the blocked site, he responded, “Pretty easy, Dad. We know more about computers than the teachers do.” Here at John Jay, if you want to get on Instagram or Facebook, you only have to turn off your WiFi in the cafeteria. What’s the purpose of putting all these restrictions on school WiFi and making sure students have limited access to the internet if it’s easy for them to get around it? According to Emilie MacDonald, technology and computers are becoming second nature to kids, so while the administration thinks they may be outsmarting students, they’re really just challenging them. This completely undermines the idea of having web filters, since accessing these blocked sites is, quite literally, child’s play.

On the other hand, according to NetNanny.com, “a school’s most important job, along with educating your kids, is protecting them while they are there.” It can be said that schools have to block websites as a way to maintain their student’s safety and keep their students away from distractions. Schools have the responsibility to educate the next generation, so preventing them from distractions like Instagram or Facebook seems like a necessary action. Some schools also block social media websites as a way to reduce cyberbullying. However, blocking websites at school has no effect on what students do while they are at home, so while it may decrease the amount of rude postings made while at school, it could increase what goes on at home.

School web filters can be excessive, and because of this, John Jay needs to lessen the restrictions it puts on students’ WiFi because it only causes annoyance and frustration. When students are not able to reach a website they need for homework or a project, especially when that website doesn’t need to be blocked, they become irritated and exasperated. Blocking websites posits that all social media is bad and can’t be used as an educational tool, which is inherently wrong given its uses across the country. Lastly, if kids can find ways to access websites that are banned, what’s the point of banning them? Lessening or eliminating these filters would benefit students at John Jay, rather than harm them like the administration seems to think.