By now, you have probably figured out that we have computers with access to the
Internet in the library. If you know anything at all about the Internet, then you also
know that there are plenty of "objectionable" sites. To prevent us from using
the Brevard County server to look at Hustler-style pornography, the Brevard County
School Board has set up a proxy to block certain sites. You have probably come across an
error message stating that the Brevard County Acceptable Use Policy blocked access
to the page you wanted to see. Unfortunately, this policy can mean nearly anything. It can
deem "unacceptable" many widely accepted works of art, such as the Venus de
Milo.
My problem is with some of the other types of censorship enacted by the School Board. For
example, when I recently did research for a "Model Student Senate" project, the
server denied me access to the CNN site AllPolitics. The censors had decided that a sports
advertisement on that page violated their policy. I loaded the page later that day on a
different server and found no such "unacceptable" advertisement. Meanwhile, the
server failed to block pictures of obscene sexual acts.
I could not access a site containing information on upcoming legislation dealing with
encryption, the process of putting information into a complicated code. Major businesses
and individuals legally use encryption to ensure privacy in their communications, yet the
system denied me access because the page contained information useful in "criminal
activities." The system did not censor the following files, so I must
"assume" that they are not useful in "criminal activities":
| Yummy Marijuana Recipes |
| How To Grow Marijuana |
| How to Make LSD |
| How to Pick Locks |
| How to Crack Master Locks |
| How to Make Explosives from Fuel and Fertilizer |
| How to Make Pipe Bombs |
| Three Different Napalm Recipes |
| and anything else you want from the Anarchist's Cookbook. |
The system censored the People for the American Way web site, apparently for the
very ambiguous word lifestyle. I can, however, reach the American Family
Association home page, which contains graphic descriptions of sexual acts. Showing any
one of these acts is enough to make a movie NC-17.
I understand that the school board does not want its resources used to view the latest
issue of Playboy, but the system currently used does not work. By blocking anything
that is even slightly disagreeable, the school board has censored sites that could be
extremely useful to any research involving present-day issues. The "blocking"
fails to satisfy its stated purpose: to keep pornography and bomb recipes out of access by
school students.
It is time to use a totally different method. Someone in the county government building
in Viera can never effectively control the Internet. If they only understood the nature of
the Internet, they would agree.
A librarian who simply glances at a monitor can get a pretty good idea as to the
content of what a person is viewing. I trust that the librarian can tell the difference
between the Anarchist's Cookbook and information of a Senate bill dealing with
cryptography.
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