Why filters will never be enough

I am encouraging all our staff to take a look at schoolboredom.com. One of many, many, many sites your kids know about that you don't.

 

Why Internet filters alone just can't do the job of ensuring safe and appropriate use of the Internet in schools.

But then you knew that already. 

Comments

[John Pederson]

Most of my blog traffic used to be from Google and kids searching "unblock" "myspace". I was wondering where all my readers went.

[arvind s grover]

The arms race cannot be one! My thoughts on that here:
http://21apples.org/articles/2005/11/30/the-arms-race

Also check out Firefox extensions that automatically use any proxy to get around your blocking. The war is over, filters lost:
https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q=proxy&type=E&app=firefox

[Vicki Davis]

The greatest filter is the human mind. If we can keep the smut out, the borderline stuff must be taught with discretion, wisdom, and direct supervision. We must educate kids and time spent fighting them is not spent educating! Great post as always!

[Pat Carson]

I like the arms race analogy. We've been educating our administrators about the futility of blocking all of these sites forever. We've working on our policy right now - students will lose Internet access - their username and password will be blocked for a period of time.

That's about it. MySpace has a lot of good points - my own adult children used it recently to get in touch with their cousins. But...do it on your home computer, not here.