Shelly Eaton

SLM521SO03

February 19, 2003

Elective # 5

Filtering: The Pros & Cons

Filtering is currently a big issue at my school, because many students are going to improper sites and viewing inappropriate material. Does our school have a filter? Of course it has a filter! Is filtering right or wrong? What do you think? If you have never given the topic a thought, I hope after reading this composition, you will not only question, but also form an opinion as to whether filtering the Internet should or should not be done.

There are many pros of filtering. First of all, there is no Federal law at this point in time to stop on-line predators from giving inappropriate information to children. This leads us to the second positive. Filtering provides a layer of protection for children when adults are not around to observe what the children are viewing. Filtering is also higher tech then in the past, which allows an adult to filter appropriate sites rather than block by a keyword. (Ex. Breast). This in turn does not inhibit learning. The newer filters are also available to be installed on servers, which can in turn be used by multiple workstations. This is great for schools because students can’t disengage it. Last but not least, filtering is not

considered censorship because the sites are still being produced and distributed, but are not available for the viewing of young children.

Just as there are pros to filtering there are also an equal amount of cons. First of all the software itself is a problem. It is difficult to interpret if certain software meets your needs. Most times the only way you know if the software is going to meet your expectations is to download it, install it, and then try it. Also, if you get a new version of the software, sites that have been blocked may no longer be blocked, so you need to start from the beginning again. Now let’s look at the filter after you purchased it. The filter might block by key word and not even take in to account the context of the word. For example, breast might be blocked, but then so is breast cancer. This then leads to sites being blocked that are important to a student who is doing research. Is that what we want to do as educators and parents?

Hopefully you will think twice when you hear the word filtering. Filtering or not to filter, which is best for children and the learning process?