Offensive Content

One problem with the internet is the availability of offensive content such as pornography and violent videos, images, and text. Because of the lack of regulation, it is easy for people of all ages, including students, to access illicit material. This raises many questions pertaining to supervision, access, and censorship.

As educators responsible for children we must consider what our students are exposed to and why they seek out this material. As an administrator, I am often placed in the position of having to suspend students for inappropriate use of the computer, most often pertaining to quasi-pornographic material. This experience has taught me that students need only seconds to access this type of material and can easily circumnavigate our filters.

Answers seem elusive. We have tried to implement more restrictive filters, but this seems to punish everyone who uses the internet for legitimate purposes. We have involved parents, counsellors, and senior administration, but all to no avail. It seems the urge to view pornographic images trumps the risk of getting caught.

This makes me wonder what types of material students are viewing at home, in the absence of filters and strict supervision. This all points to the fact that the material should be regulated more closely. I realize and appreciate that we live in a relatively free society, but, at times, it seems as though the personal freedoms of the individual trump the well-being of all. I realize that censorship and regulation can be a slippery slope. I do not, however, envision Canada ever slipping into some Orwellian state of being. I believe our government has sufficient checks and balances to prevent abuse of such powers. As such, it is my assertion that we should have a government organization with a mandate to locate and block all pornographic material as it is too easily accessed by children. This type of censorship would surely raise the ire of fanatical advocates of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but perhaps the well-being of our children should take precedence over the ready availability of internet porn.

Social Networking Boundaries

Facebook has brought with it many ethical grey areas. Teachers need to be cognisant of the fact that social networking sites are available to a very wide audience. This has ramifications on more than one level.

First, teachers must consider what information they post on their profiles. There is a stark difference between Facebook and Hotmail, and it seems to me that not everyone really understands how public Facebook can be. Because of the public nature of social networking, teachers must consider their professional reputations when either communicating or adding information to their profiles. What might be fine to say to one or two friends via email is not okay when it comes to writing on the walls of friends or contacts.

Secondly, teachers must be careful as to who they include as their 'friends'. Teachers should not be 'friends' with students and must be careful to maintain that professional distance. Having social contact with students could easily be construed as a breach of professional ethics. I have also heard some argue that it should be accepted and that as long as the communication between teacher and student is of a professional nature, it should not be viewed as unprofessional. I tend to disagree. In my opinion, teachers and students must not have contact that could be viewed as social in nature. This is not to say that teachers with students on their 'friend' lists are necessarily unprofessional, but they need to consider how their actions are viewed by the general public.

Dangers of Technology

I have, in my professional life, had to deal with the dangers of having children connected to the world at large. The danger really spawns from the anonymous nature of internet use. Because of this, people seem to view things they do online as somehow detached from who they really are. This allows the worst part of people, who may not otherwise have been bullies or predators, to surface. I suppose this speaks to human nature and what exactly prevents people from committing crimes. For many, it is simply the fear of getting caught. When these people are on-line, that fear is removed, putting the public, and especially students, at-risk.

The problem is how to best protect our students. To not allow students access to the internet or to severely limit their ability to on-line information and communication seems anti-intellectual, perhaps akin to a medieval book-burning. The best solutions we have been able to generate contain little that could be categorized as innovative. Specifically, we sent letters home encouraging parents to monitor their children's computer use, we encouraged our own staff to be more vigilant with respect to our supervision, and we had an updated security system put in our computer systems division-wide.

Will any of these precautions affect a change? I doubt it. The fact is that students have almost unlimited access to the largely unregulated world of cyber-space. This provides bullies and predators with ample opportunity to find victims. I realize that negative incidents have been sensationalized by the media, but I have seen the dangers first-hand during this school year and it frightens me.