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

Some of these concepts apply to other types of libraries, notably publicly funded schools and universities, but some of the direct impact is lost.

Internet Use in Schools

Tapscott (1998) has proclaimed, “The Net Generation has arrived” (p. 1). The current generation of primary and secondary students has grown up surrounded by digital media. They use it for information, education, entertainment, shopping, and virtually every other aspect of their lives. In the area of education, the Internet has come to be a standard and accepted tool in schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (Cattagni and Farris, 2001), 98% of public schools in the United States have access to the Internet. Significantly, the survey found virtually no differences in access by school characteristics such as poverty level or metropolitan status in 1999 or 2000. An unpublished study cited in the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Levin and Arafeh, 2002) found that 78% of America’s children between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet, and nearly every online teenager (94%) has used the Internet for school research. Similar data were reported in a 2001 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (DeBell and Chapman, 2003) where more than 90% of high school aged youth use computers, and at least 75% use the Internet.

School Media Centers

Almost all children in America attend a school that has a media center. According to the latest study from the National Center for Education Statistics (Holton, Bae, Baldridge, Brown, and Heffron, 2004), 97% of children in public schools and 82% of children in private schools attended a school with a library media center.