Yes, I am. That same child doesn’t own the land or the equipment on the schoolyard playground, either, but he’s not being censored there. My opinion is that the ipads should have the same level of access and oversight (i.e. the same policies) as the school library does. If the library filters, then the ipads should be filtered. If not, then more’s the better. Their tech policy should be applied evenly in that regard.
As to the question on filtering at all–I’m against that.
I don’t feel secure about any technology given to my child that’s not vetted by me…at the very least, it would have a bandaid over both camera lenses.
3 Likes
Nnnnnnyeahhh, but there’s a big difference between ‘wouldn’t want them to view’, and ‘they shouldn’t view’. Who decides, and on what criteria? If the story’s accurate, and one of them is Wikipedia, that seems a little foolish on the part of supposed educators, no?
4 Likes
That depends. Are the students being issued this portable device with the intention that it go home with them, or merely from class to class? Will homework assignments necessitate them taking it home (assuming for the sake of argument that some students are too poor to afford their own iPad and will therefore be unable to complete assignments without their school-issued iPad)?
If it’s non-optional for students to bring this home, then this goes beyond restricting their 1st and 4th amendment rights on school grounds.
Sorry you don’t have a Bill of Rights to invoke when there’s something you don’t like happening. We thought it was a good idea, which is why we wrote it. It’s served us pretty well.
5 Likes
Actually, we do, and ours is older. You did kind of forget to put the Bill of Rights into your Constitution to start with, too. 
2 Likes
I’m saying that those rules are significantly more minimal, prudent, and sensible. (Which the ones in question are not; any educational institution which blocks Munroe’s “What if” is truly doing their students a disservice.)
Edit: Also, I’m not legally bound to be here which is different from a high school student.
5 Likes
Oh, absolutely, although I could see this being filtered in a misguided attempt to stop kids from plagiarising large amounts of stuff from there. Even so, he also mentions filtering news sites, which seems very extreme, although doesn’t mention which sites (maybe he’s referring to tabloid sites for example, which have varying degrees of nudity on them).
My professional opinion is that filtering should be restricted to porn, offensive things and security related things, but a lot of things can be put in to those categories by 1 person that a 2nd person wouldn’t agree on.
Actually, it’s a worthwhile document but is invoked unreasonably on lots of occasions. Like when a school is trying to protect their investment in technology, or when the government wants to stop insane people from buying a gun.
2 Likes
True dat.
2 Likes
Everyone has to follow rules. Most people don’t have to follow rules as intrusive and arbitrary as those of a typical high school.
6 Likes
Well, that rules out Wikipedia. It has all three of those categories well represented.
Personally, I’ve never filtered any of that from my children, but then again I also did not allow them to browse the Internet in private until they were old enough to buy their own devices (my youngest is a teenager now).
It’s weird that people are willing to work so hard to make sure that children will encounter porn, offensiveness and security countermeasures in unaudited, unsupervised settings. Because that’s all they are really doing - making sure that their kids will have no appropriate adult guidance to tell them which things might be real and which things might be fantasy (much less which things might be appropriate, legal, deviant, harmful, or enjoyable in any given situation). In real life, you can’t prevent them from ever encountering these things without murdering them. All you can do is make sure you won’t be around to see it and moderate its impact appropriately.
8 Likes
I wonder if that’s what people thought was happening at Harriton High School before they were busted for activating students cameras when they were at home.
4 Likes
Right, but wasn’t that aimed at creating a stronger parliament, at the expense of the crown? And was the parliament not all that representative in 1689? [edited to add] The American bill of rights were added specifically to pull in the southern landholders, btw, and of course the constitution did not apply to all Americans for a few centuries, so there is that too. Amazingly systems set up by one group to keep themselves in power, often mean that the rule of law is unevenly applied…
For better media coverage, turn to channel 4 (CBS- WCCO), 5 (ABC - KSTP) or 11 (NBC - KARE). Wayzetta is a suburb of Minneapolis.
2 Likes
What’s disturbing here? I’ll tell you. Several years ago if there had been a post like this on BoingBoing, you’d have a mass of people having an intelligent discussion on privacy issues. Now you have a sizeable number of people pimping for the concept that public (and private) institutions can do whatever they please because it’s their money, and that common decency and civil rights have no part in the discussion because money deserves to get what it wants.
The enemy is winning, folks, and no one notices.
20 Likes
I have a similar screencap, from when a former employer was blocking teh Boing.
The photo-cred is for a friend of mine; I almost thought it was my photo, at first.
Small, weird world.
It must be sad to be you. OTOH, you can make kids sad, as well.
Hey, kids, life sucks! Get used to it! Freedom is a lie! And play and no work AND IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN.
2 Likes
- Minors are, by definition, not permitted to enter into contracts.
- Where are this kid’s parents? They should have been contacted after the very first time he was called on the carpet for “unspecified crimes against the state”.
7 Likes
Ah yes, the American School-To-Prison system. Gotta love it.
3 Likes
I understand that it’s frustrating to be given a ‘spyware loaded iPad’ - but I don’t think you’re really listening or showing much respect to the school either.
The school, despite looking like it has antiquated views on access to the internet, may have a very good reason (or legal reason) for placing the content blocks and tracking software on hardware that they distribute.
If the school is providing you with hardware that you are required to use for a class, but then disabling the software needed to participate in the class, that’s just poor planning.
Instead of getting up on your soap box and screaming foul, have you investigated to see if there’s an way to opt-out of the program?
And finally - do you really, honestly think that you aren’t already being tracked every single second you’re on the web? What difference does it make if it’s the school knowing where you are or Facebook or Google?
1 Like
Reminds me of this line, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”, which is attributed to either George Orwell’s book 1984 or the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. I find it scary that educators are saying this. It cropped up ever since 9/11/2001 (well, after it) and I find it appalling that this has become the norm among any freedom loving individual. Regardless, of it being a quote from either a book analyzing a life of no personal privacy, or from a Nazi. I think anyone would find that just distasteful.
About filtering information because it might be distasteful for our children. That to me is a waste of time. I’ve seen more sex, drugs, rock & roll before I was 13. Of course, I’m a teen of the 80’s and we didn’t have the Internet as it is today so we had to get that the old fashioned way: our fathers hidden Playboy collection. Did every teen do this? Probably not. But I find it odd that most adults forget what it means to be a curious kid. Maybe they weren’t? But I was. I loved school as a kid and now as an adult. I never felt that I needed information censored from me and neither did my parents. They felt that in order for me to learn to become an adult I needed to understand things that adult had to deal with. Did I lose my childhood? Nope. Did I grow up to be some weird person? HELL YES!!
I know people whose parents censored everything for them. So far, they are freaked out about anything and everything that happens in the world. They are always talking about protecting the children and, as far as I can tell, have not taught their children about being an adult and responsibility. Children are curious and we should foster that.
Sorry, for the anecdotal information but once last thing I like to mention is this. Nathan was teaching himself about DOS BATCH files and how to use and program them. The library jumped to a conclusion and all he was doing was teaching himself about computers. The adults jumped to conclusions and he was in trouble for being a geeky kid. So he loses privileges because he was learning? Isn’t that the opposite of what we want educators to do? I thought they would, once learning what he was doing, stop treating him like he was going to crash the system and maybe foster that geek spirit and give him a part time job where he has to learn more.
2 Likes
My high school diploma was withheld because I drew a cartoon the administration didn’t like. When it comes to high school, you can expect exactly the sort of rational concern about your civil rights that one would receive in the workplace. That is, if your workplace also believed that they were babysitting you. The only way to win this fight is to graduate. Hopefully with a diploma to show for your efforts.
3 Likes
