Re: Internet policy - Minnesota

[William Russell Smith <rssmith@TENET.EDU>]

>As a learning resource, the
>Internet is similar to books, magazines, video, CD-ROM, and other
>information sources.

     Similar? If you can call something that is interactive with 25 million
people similar to those media objects then I guess we need a new
definition of the word. No, telecommunications in many ways is far
different from those types of reference materials.

     Just to give you two examples: I can easily find a place on the
Internet that tells me how to make homemade bombs. That same material is not
quite as easily obtained by other reference materials. Number two: there are
sexual materials on the Internet that constitutes the legal definition
of pornography according to many legally defined local standards in this
country. Once again the computer linkup is less likely to be subject
to the same restrictions let's say of an adult night club or adult book
store especially concerning age restrictions imposed by local jurisdictions.

>Internet use guidelines should have as their underlying
value the
>preservation of student rights to examine and use all information
>formats and should not be used to place restrictions on student >use of the
Internet.

Examine and use all information? No restrictions? Surely the Supreme Court
hasn't agreed with such ideas in our history and while the Constitution
is the supreme law of the land, the Court is the force that interprets
that law. Student rights have generally been subject to certain restrictions
based on their age and maturity levels. That's why we don't execute
10-year-old murderers and why students have restrictions on rights in
the school systems.


>Students have the right to communicate with other individuals on the
>Internet without restriction or prior restraint.
>--School officials must respect a student's right to privacy in using
>Internet resources and using the Internet as a vehicle for communication.

Does this include chat sessions with pedophiles and serial killers? Sorry...
but our uncensored world has some pretty evil folks out. Luckily we have
Internet specialists in the FBI and Interpol and most of the big cities so
those creeps usually get tracked down eventually. But do you want your child
conversing with unknown adults?


>If restrictions are placed on student access to Internet resources, it is
>parents and only parents who may place restrictions on their children, and
>only their own children.  Parents may not tell the school to assume
>responsibility for imposing restrictions on their children.

     I don't think hypothetical kids who come from a family where the momma
is a prostitute, daddy is a drunk/dope addict and/or in prison are going
to get much restrictions on their behavior at home or in the community much
less any glance at that pupil's Internet forays. We (educators) have been
seeing the successful as well as the failed youth of America since
Horace Mann opened shop in Massachussetts about 150 years ago. To suggest we
renege on our pledge to try to fill the role of responsible role models in
the schools is not even in the ballpark for the immediate future.

     It's an ugly picture for sure: if the parents don't control the kids,
then the schools get a shot at it; if the schools fail then the judicial
system gets their input; then if they fail we go to the prison systems, and
finally if the person is beyond our accepted standards of behavior for
existing on this planet we execute them. It's a grim chronology, but quite
true... luckily most don't go to the utter extreme, but enough fall into
the second two phases that our society is always looking for new ways of
"restricting" deviant behavior.


>Students are responsible for the ethical and educational use of their own
Internet accounts.
>Students have a responsibility to respect the privacy of other Internet users.

     You've got the first word correct. They are "students" and as such
we don't yet have the same expectations of mature, ethical behavior.
They are not miniature adults. Far from it... and many *NEVER* grow up
and instead remain chronic adolescents their entire life.

>Policies and procedures to handle concerns raised about Internet
resources should be similar to those used for other educational resources.

     No way. This is not about books, it's not about videos, it's about
something that is so unique we don't even have a grasp on the complexity
of the legal and moral issues. Global telecommunications via personal
computer is the greatest technological advancement of our civilized
history and it will reshape our lives in ways we can't even begin to predict
for the next few years.


>Minnesota Coalition Against Censorship

     I appreciate your honest input of your coalition and I hope you won't
feel too disgusted by my response ...if you are a true believer in
noncensorship than you shouldn't feel offended by my input :-).

     Lest you feel I am a kneejerk reactionary conservative Republican...
forget it. I always vote a split ticket and I am firmly against many forms of
censorship. One of my favorite quotes from Dwight Eisenhower sums up how
I feel about censorship: "We know that when censorship goes beyond
the observance of common decency....it quickly becomes, for us, a deadly
danger." (speech at Columbia University, May 31, 1954).

     In a speech at Dartmouth College at the height of the McCarthy
Communism witch hunt (after McCarthy accused government libraries of having
Communist books) Eisenhower lashed out at Tailgunner Joe with these
remarks: "Don't join the book burners.... Don't be afraid to go in your
library and read every book."

     But I'm afraid that books are quite different from computer interactive
communications and Dwight wouldn't say the same thing today about Internet
policies.

     I thank you for your comments though and the right to quote your
document. I am writing an article for a technical magazine on AUP (Acceptable
User Policies) and your views will receive some attention in this upcoming
article. I must say that I don't quite have the same ideas myself for the
model I will be proposing for school districts. While I am in favor of
freedom of speech and of the press I don't yell "Fire" in a crowded
store and I don't libel people in my published articles. A total lack of
censorship is anarchy and I hope my children grow up in a world of regulations,
not chaos.

More than my two cents,

Thanks for such thought-provoking ideas,

Russell Smith
rssmith@tenet.edu
Educational Technologist
Sweetwater, Texas