Internet Restriction Causes Frustration

by Hanjoon Park

If I type www.lyrics.com on the internet at school, the whole screen changes into two red lines and the words "Access to this site is blocked." Many students are very irritated about this system. The purpose of the system is to block harmful websites, but in many cases, it is doing the opposite.

"It annoys me to the extreme," says Emma Beat, junior. Also Clint Drosselmeyer, senior, complained about this system. "I don’t think computers should be blocked because most of our information that we get comes from the Internet."

I typed some game websites, and most of them connected easily. The main problem would be that useless gaming sites aren’t blocked, but sites that we actually need to use to complete our school work are blocked.

"I don’t like it," Hunter Hageman, senior, complained simply. "I think all sites are informational sites." Diana Fath, senior, stated, "They block too much. I hate getting kicked off the internet while I’m trying to do research." Many students had a similar answer, but they thought that some blocking system should still be used.

How about the foreign schools? Carl Alin, junior, who is an exchange student from Sweden, also commented that he sometimes gets angry because of this system. He explained that Sweden schools also block some websites, but not this many. Most of the Korean schools don’t block any websites; in contrast, lab monitors watch what we are doing.

Teachers also agreed about the problems of blocking websites. Ms. Teel answered, "I admit there are times I would like to have access to a site that I don’t think should be blocked." Mrs. Albright and Mr. Roe also agreed stating that they would use Youtube for class in a proper way if it were unblocked.

Although they’d like to have access to some blocked sites, teachers feel that restrictions are necessary. Many teachers and students don’t feel that the blocking of some websites is that big of a problem but have complained about the technical problems that come with using internet the proper way. When asked about the future of internet restrictions at KHS, Mr. Henry answered, "In the process of blocking these sites some very helpful sites are also blocked. This is unfortunate, but I believe USD 331 is trying to remedy this situation.

However, this problem is not just a technical problem as Roe also stated, "Every day I find students playing non-educational games on the computers. Every day I find students wading through page after page of non-educational material. The sad fact is that until students can learn to use the blocked internet in a way that respects the school policies and guidelines, no change is possible or appropriate."