Access Denied: How Internet Filters Impact Student Learning in H ...

the present day, a preoccupation with the supposed evils of masturbation led to an almost fanatical separation of children from all things sexual. In the U.S., court decisions of the Victorian era were characterized by the thinking that obscenity law was designed to prevent immoral literature from falling into the wrong hands (defined as servants, the mentally deficient, women, or minors). Few scholars dared to question the assumption that children were irreparably harmed by exposure to explicit sexual materials. Heins ends the book by concluding, as did the Williams Committee in Britain and the Meese Commission in the U.S. that the basic arguments against exposure of pornography to minors are really about morals, not about scientific evidence. While this may be desirable to certain segments of our population, including some parents, schools, and clergy, “underlying our system of free expression is the principle that government officials cannot ban, burden or disfavor speech that they find immoral or offensive … Citizens decide these matters for themselves” (p. 258). Thus, a research question in the study will consider whether inadvertent contacts with controversial materials harm students.

Summary of Literature Review

A review of the relevant literature makes it clear that the issue of filtering technology in school libraries is a critical dilemma in today’s digital environment. Comprehensive and objective studies of filters reveal benefits to users who are concerned that youth may be harmed by access to inappropriate materials on the Internet. This must be balanced by the knowledge that such protectionism may violate students’ constitutional rights and may leave them less able to sort out harmful from helpful information on their own in the future. No studies were identified in the literature that described the experiences of students who use the Internet for term paper research in media centers on filtered computers. This proposed study, giving voice to students, teachers, and media specialists, who face these issues on a daily basis, will add to the knowledge base