Intellectual Freedom
Many parents feel that Internet filtering by programs such as BESS really do work effectively. However, by blocking information from reaching students by means of an automated filter may actually cause more harm than good. Teachers have forgotten their duty to supervise students while they use the Internet. Many students often try to "press the limits" of the filter and try to gain access to topics that are normally filtered, such as pornography. One student who attends a school district other than Pasco County has told me "students now go into the library and try to access pornographic sites seeing how many are not blocked. The librarians have relaxed a bit now and do not actively supervise students, since they believe the filter stops access to such sites. Today, more students access pornographic sites from school than before BESS was installed, just because they want to prove that they can. It is funny how before we had BESS, nobody ever dared to go to a pornographic site." The same thing happens here in Pasco County. Not only do students try to access pornographic and adult content knowing that it is against the "Acceptable Use Policy" (AUP), but they also break that same AUP by accessing content such as jokes, online v
By blocking access to email services, students are denied a means of communication with the rest of the world. Many message boards contain information about what problems or issues other people have faced and also responses and ideas of how to fix them. If we cannot learn from society's mistakes in the past, how do we prevent them in the future?. Can they really be reviewing every page? They have hired a staff of one hundred people (many who work only part time) to do the jobs that even a team of 500 people would have trouble keeping up with. Funny how the government does not ban minors from looking at slot machines in the physical world, yet it is banned in the virtual. N2H2, the creators of BESS, has publicly stated, "Our staff of 100+ Human Web Reviewers personally examines every site we categorize. However, the Internet is constantly changing, pages are changed all the time. Are you telling me that I should not be allowed to see a person's death? Well, just last night I saw an Isreali soldier thrown out of a police station window and murdered by a mob on CBS. Weapons have been around for thousands of years, why would we only now stop the ability to learn about them. The learning benefits from message boards are incredible. " There are situations that profanity is used to document history and the mood of society, with all of its emotions, that people lived in at the time. How often do you see email blocked in business offices? I cannot see why a computer program that emulates a slot machine is banned from my site. Discrimination and acts of hate are vital parts of history. An incredible number of educational sites are blocked by BESS for a varierty of reasons.
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Acceptance Essays
