One of the harder things about teaching kids to be adults is how to ween them off of the protection that adults provide. In my most recent E14 article, I talk about the ways I’ve seen high schools censor the internet while operating the BlueStamp Engineering program. While there’s no ‘best’ solution for everyone, I believe taking a risk-averse approach can do more harm than good:
The technical fields have a problem in the training of the next generation of students: internet censorship. It represents a hesitation in the move from information being something that can be controlled to the free passing of ideas, and it places education in direct conflict with the demands of industry.
There are two ways I’ve seen internet controlled by high schools during my involvement with the BlueStamp Engineering program:
- White list: Administrators decide on the sites that are appropriate for students and only allow them to access approved information.
- Black list: Find sites that are known to be problems for high-school aged students such as facebook, porn, etc. and block them while leaving the rest of the internet available.
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