Internet’s Dark Side Has Schools Worried

Educators are as worried about pornographic potholes on the information superhighway as anybody else.

As KootNet coordinators fret over network “servers,” baud rates and budget lines, they’re also contemplating how to keep kids from the Internet’s dark side.

High-profile stories about children being electronically lured from home by strangers and the ready use of the Internet by pedophiles have fueled congressional efforts to control the anarchist computer network.

The scary stories also have bumped access to the Internet off the high-priority list for local schools.

“There are too many unknowns out there,” said John Wilkerson, computer coordinator for the Post Falls School District. “We want to make sure we have all our bases covered.”

Educators do not want to keep the wealth of information available over the Internet from children, but they do want to provide some safeguards.

“We’re taking very careful steps to make sure there are limits,” said Judy Drake, secondary education director for the Coeur d’Alene School District. “If there is new technology out there that will control that we will look into that, and make sure folks know the boundaries.”

Some programs exist that identify certain key words or addresses, and can block access to information containing them. Other Internet provides can screen requests for information, though it slows the transmission.

A foolproof and affordable system may be impossible to find, however.

“Manufacturers out there create software that blocks out access, but there’s new sites every week,” Wilkerson said. “I’m not sure how failsafe those are.”

The University of Idaho is one possible provider of Internet access to KootNet.

Michael Lasher, UI’s computer coordinator, said their system can block out sex and erotica newsgroups, but he admits that they can’t filter out everything offensive - the Internet’s simply too gargantuan.

So schools also have to devise other ways to police access.

“Our advice to schools is to place the personal computers in a fairly open place,” he said.

Lasher related a telltale sign of inappropriate Internet use passed on by the head of one school that’s online:

“When the screen’s brightness is turned way down and the students are leaning in real close, you know they are doing something they shouldn’t.”

Lasher and other experts say it’s important to have students and parents sign something that explains the possible pitfalls and potholes of the Internet, how to avoid them, and what the consequences will be if a student deliberately turns into them.

“You need to tell students to stay within safe areas,” Lasher said. “All the information in the world is on the Internet, and if it isn’t now, it will be.”

, DataTimes