For students in the USD 497 School District, current internet restrictions are a hindrance. Searching a simple term such as “cracks” on Google will turn up no results, thanks to the district’s strict filter.

In order to keep up with our tech-savvy society, the district administrators need to loosen their website restrictions.

The district and building administrators, Institutional Technology (IT) and the Children’s Internet Protection Act determine what content is blocked. The district administration uses publicly available block lists. This list of websites catches harmful items, but also catches innocent words as well.

Not only are certain words restricted, but harmless websites. At one point or another, most of us have tried to access Facebook from the school’s computers. Sadly, this is a restricted site. The reasoning: it is un-educational.

Even though the filter blocks a lot of content, it still lets some stuff slip through. While students cannot look up sinless websites and words, they can look up how to smoke marijuana. There have also been some instances where students have typed in .com instead of .gov or .org, and that has brought them to explicit sites.

Although internet restrictions should be relaxed, many teachers can still teach their curriculum with the current internet policies. These internet restrictions help ensure that students stay off sites containing pornographic, obscene and harmful content. Potentially damaging sites also are blocked. As for the blocking of simple words, it is not up to the district administrators. The Strict Safe Search option provided by search engines determines what results are shown and even filters some everyday words. Teachers, though, have a way of contacting IT about commonly-blocked words. If not for Strict Safe Search, district administrators would be forced to block commonly used search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, and students use those too often.

With technology becoming more and more essential every day, students must have the means to access a wider variety of websites. The filters are blocking the wrong content. If the district’s computer policy is preventing students from getting work done, students should talk to a teacher or use a family or friend’s computer. If those resources are not available, students should try the public library. There are many options, but the internet policy needs to be re-evaluated.