[LM_NET] And a child shall lead them

[Mark Williams <markwilliams@MAKAW.NET>]

The student's ideas in the article Nancy cited have merit, 
but........   are districts going to hire a fleet of censors who will 
"review the sites", or will it become someone's job in addition to 
what they already do  (we know the answer to that one, don't we? <G> 
).  The recording system the students suggests would have to have its 
results reviewed daily and action quickly taken if it were to be 
effective.  The sheer volume of sites to be reviewed in any but the 
smallest districts would lead me to doubt that "Lists of good and bad 
sites could be built up quickly, and students who abused the system 
could be punished."

I am NOT a fan of filtering programs.  NO filtering system is 
fool-proof or 100% effective, but I accept that, given the legal and 
social climate we work in, they are a fact of life for schools.  What 
is needed, IMHO, is a filtering system with both a black list and a 
white list that can be accessed locally by the librarian, so that an 
incorrectly blocked site can be opened, or a inappropriate site that 
gets through can be immediately blocked.  Failing that, several 
people at the distritct who are always available and have the 
authority to block or unblock sites that are called in to them by 
individual schools.  Way too many districts have completely given up 
their authority to some anonymous corporate entity in this case...you 
must submit a request to the software company and wait for them to 
approve or deny your request.  The process takes at least a few days, 
sometimes a week or more.  By that time, the class(es) have moved on, 
or word of the 'porn site you can access' has spread throughout the school.

Mark Williams
Consulting Librarian
Professional Services for Conferences, Districts, Workshops
markwilliams@makaw.net
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