Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet

June, 2003

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Where our children are concerned, there are probably fewer controversial topics than the issue of "Internet safety." This umbrella term covers a wide range of topics from pornography to child abduction, with opinions ranging as far and wide as the supposed threat being addressed. Congress has even weighed in on the issue by mandating content filters for all Internet-connected computers available to students in school. These filters are presumably able to filter out access to pornographic sites containing the word "tit" while allowing access to sites on bird species including the "blue tit."

While I have yet to see a filter that can handle such distinctions, I don't doubt that these filters can be built. But, in the meantime, I have seen G-rated "family friendly" filters that allow all manner of images to be accessed if the phrase is requested properly. In other words, the challenge of filters is to be sure they block "offensive" content, and reveal "valuable" data.

Note that I've put "offensive" and "valuable" in quotation marks to remind us that the blocked or passed sites meet certain criteria that were chosen by a particular individual. Companies who make Web blocker products are amazingly quiet when asked how they go about defining "banned" terms and sites, as they should be. Their criteria are established by a person or small group of people who have taken on the task of defining appropriateness for millions of people.

To me the issue of Internet safety is not addressed effectively by the use of filters. In fact, a reliance on filters destroys the opportunity to have children learn how to protect themselves. While it may be the case that every Internet-aware computer in your school has filters installed, 78% of your teen-age students (based on a nationwide average) access the Internet from home, and I'd guess that the bulk of these computers have no filters at all, or the filters have been disabled by the students who use them. (For statistics on home use of the Internet by teens, see the studies published by the Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org) or many of the ongoing surveys conducted by the Pew Charitable Trust (www.pewinternet.org)).

Also, even for school-based computers, be aware that some young Internet users know how to disable school-installed filters, or circumvent them in interesting ways. (These are the same young people who know how to unlock any version of any Adobe software product, or download the full theatric release of Matrix Reloaded, a task that takes several hours, but with the proper bandwidth, they can do it.)

It is also important to understand that activity that is inappropriate on the Internet is also inappropriate in the physical world. Pedophilia is neither less nor more reprehensible just because it is online. Given that there is no Net Nanny for life, it seems to me that one of our tasks as responsible educators is to teach children how to use the Internet in appropriate ways, with the understanding that this instruction will apply to their life offline as well..

Here are some basic issues students need to learn about:

• Protect your identity, address, and phone number when you are in chat rooms (since many teens already have five screen names or more, they likely know about this, but it should still be taught.)

• Let them know that the rules of everyday life apply in cyberspace - don't go home with strangers, etc. The Web is neither better nor worse that the physical world when it comes to child safety or danger.

• Pubescent teens are likely to want to know more about sex. Developing an understanding and respect for this most human of acts may fall outside the curriculum, but it is not far from student's minds. So, if you are afraid that students would rather see images of copulating humans that look at the differences between igneous and metamorphic rocks, just be sure all the classroom computer monitors face the front of the room where you can scan them in an instant. Also, if you suddenly see 12 students gathered around a single screen, you may wish to join them to see what they have found to be so interesting. Who knows, you may have stumbled onto a "teachable moment."

When I have publicly argued against school-based filters (a moot point now that they are required by law), I hear the counter-argument that boys might want to see Playboy, but the school library doesn't subscribe to it. This is true, but school libraries do subscribe to National Geographic, the one place I was sure to find at least one photo of topless ladies when I was in school.

To me the bigger issue boils down to who censors the censors? Where do we draw the line? Some love this debate because it shifts the conversation away from the issue of how we develop responsible habits in our youth. Wholesale censorship over informational sources strikes (it seems to me) at the heart of the first-amendment of our Constitution. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said that an educated populace was required to sustain a democracy. With the first-amendment under increasing attack in general, educating our young people about their rights and responsibilities is a far better use of our resources than trying to block their view of tits, blue or otherwise.

Copyright, © 2003, Thornburg Center. All Rights Reserved.