If you’re like most students, you’ve encountered a frustrating problem while using school computers: when trying to access certain sites, a familiar red stop sign pops up with the words “access to this page has been denied.” Federal law requires MCPS to shield students and teachers from material deemed obscene or harmful to minors, but the county’s current blocking system is too broad and sometimes prevents students from doing class-related work. MCPS should narrow the scope of their blocking system and instead rely more on the watchfulness of teachers and support staff to police students.

The Children’s Internet Protection Act requires schools that receive federal funding to limit access to inappropriate material. To comply, MCPS wrote its own set of regulations and subscribed to a software program, M86 Security, which blocks websites chosen by the district.

MCPS currently blocks a large variety of websites that fall under categories such as “adult/sexually explicit” and “obscene.” These broad terms inevitably catch many school-appropriate websites in their net. For example, students are prevented from searching for any topic with the keyword “violence,” and aren’t even allowed to see the search results for “why violence is bad” on Google.  The restrictions imposed on students are often arbitrary: students can’t access the Wikipedia page for sex but can visit “Sex and the City’s” homepage.

The blocks also prohibit students from accessing websites needed for research. For example, health students can’t research the effect of marijuana for class projects because MCPS blocks all search results and websites related to marijuana. Even though their policy states that they only block “recipes, encouragement or instructions in the use of illegal drugs,” the actual system goes beyond its intended purpose.

The blocking system is more lenient for staff, blocking them only from websites that are sexually explicit or give how-to information about illegal acts.  Students should be similarly free from restrictions on sites dealing with violence, weapons and drugs. High school students are mature enough to view such content without being negatively influenced by it.

According to students, few people are going to spend class time accessing obviously inappropriate websites such as pornographic sites. Alert teachers naturally prevent students from accessing such websites, and the new SynchronEyes technology deters students. With these safeguards already in place, MCPS should feel safe in loosening their search restrictions.

The last thing that MCPS’s computer safety policies should do is interfere with schoolwork. The county needs to give students the privilege of less restricted internet access if it expects them to make good use of the internet.