How many times have you seen this message, “Access to the requested site has been restricted due to its contents”? For years schools Internet has been littered with various filters aimed at making schools a safer and better place to learn. Many people are not satisfied though, they claim that the amount of filters we have in a high school environment is unnecessary and hinders more education than improves it.

Thomas Harper, 17-year-old junior computer science student has said, “Key words such as kill, breast or Hitler could very well render certain sites unusable. [This could be a problem] Especially if doing a research paper on say, breast cancer, or Hitler’s rise to power.”

Mrs. Huskey, our school media specialist claimed that before spring break she requested to borrow several books about marijuana because the few in her collection were seriously outdated.  These books were vital for the student’s research because Madison City Schools’ filters restricted all information pertaining to the topic. How is it expected for students to write and research controversial topics when every single website that mentions it is blocked?

Maggie Moore, a current sophomore, shares that she feels Wi-Fi restrictions are indeed necessary yet agrees that they are a bit too nitpicky and should “block less websites.”

There are opinions that support filters. Most students do agree that filters are necessary at a young age but at the adolescent age think that they are unnecessary and restrict learning capabilities. Both Maggie Moore and Mrs. Huskey both supported this opinion. They agreed on the fact that as a young elementary student you should not be exposed to certain material. But, as you age and mature, it is necessary to lower the filters and allow more freedom to the web.

A debate.org survey has shown that 83% of people don’t support school filters and agree that students should be allowed to browse and figure out what is good and what is not on their own accord. During her interview, Mrs. Huskey went on to explain that if we shelter kids and guide their internet browsing to credible sites great for use, then when they graduate and live on their own, they will search the internet and have no idea how to look at a source and tell if it is one of those viable, credible sources or a bogus one. But she also went on to explain how she had a student at one point who was researching the controversial topic of “Assisted Suicide”. “Suicide” is a word that is blocked by the schools’ filters and so the student was forced to learn synonyms for the topic. While yes it could seem annoying at first, learning synonyms and other ways to say things is a valuable skill.

From source to source the thought process may be different but the overall opinion of the crowd stands firm- there are problems with the Madison City Internet restrictions that need to be noticed and fixed to allow students to connect with the real world.

Retraction: The original version of this article might have been a misrepresentation of Mrs. Huskey’s opinion. We have updated the information in this article.