I’m probably setting myself up for trouble, but this is just too stupid not to take up. Seems the teacher whose sites have been blocked was told that any site that is within three clicks of a porn site will be blocked. Meaning, it seems, that just about the whole Internet should be switched off. I mean how about just TWO clicks? Or ONE? A quick search using link:http://www.playboy.com on AltaVista shows that right off the bat we have to block Wired, News.com, Random House.com, the Cyber Law site at Harvard, CNN, and…you get the point. And that took, like, three minutes.
Imagine three clicks. Oy.
So, in the course of conducting the research for the Digital Disconnect study, the 3-click rule was recounted to me by a teenager in DC metro area somewhat differently: that within 3 clicks of any legitimate search you can be at a porn site. It came up in the context of how easy it is to stumble upon a porn site while doing research for school, if one is not paying attention…all in all, same difference.
I am also shocked by the behavior of that teacher’s school. First the district blocks the blogs and then it is stated that any site within three clicks of a porn site will also be blocked…that is incredible. Really just unbelievable, in an age were our society is extremely influenced by the increasing technology it seems so wrong to basically not allow the use of an important technolgoy in the classroom.
I have disscussed this issue and my problems with it further on my own blog: http://www.ekhamm007.blogspot.com
By that rule, you have to block all search engines.
I posit that the 3-click rule must be urban legend. Clearly, Nate’s point proves that whatever district this is doesn’t actually live by this rule. But the number of links to be considered to trace from any page to all of the pages linked to in 3 clicks is huge. There is no way that anyone’s filter software is really doing that search.
This is a good way to make people who’s site is blocked shut up. It’s stuff like this that gives tech people a bad name.
It may be true that any page that is 3 clicks from a porn site *may* be blocked, since that comprises every page. The person whose page is blocked has to just say “oh, OK.”
I don’t know if I whined about it here, but I recently had a district tech coordinator refuse to open a port for our Blackboard site to allow our pre-service teachers to communicate with kids at a school (part of a district-approved project) because “district policy prohibits chat.”
Filtering is becoming an increasingly serious problem.
They always used that 3 click rule in my school division too. In fact, they took it so far as to say it applied to print mediums as well. If I put a link in a newsletter that could be somehow connected to something inappropriate for education within three clicks then I got in hot water. I ended up having to submit all print-based articles that gave urls out for security checks. Incredible.
By the way…Erin is a preservice student of mine and just starting to learn how to add her ideas onto the thoughts of others … if you get a chance please check out her blog where she expands on your thoughts.
I’ll be emailing you today about meeting in Elluminate to get ready for 3/13.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach