Section 4 – Missed Opportunities

Filtering services operating in New Zealand provides each school the mechanism to unblock sites that school personnel have determined appropriate for viewing.  Essentially schools can put their own filtering policies in place to best fit their context.

New Zealand teachers have reported that current filtering blocks potentially legitimate and valuable content for both them and their students. Some educators feel that strict web filtering hampers their work because school processes in place to unblock sites is cumbersome for classroom teachers.

The growth of  web content and the changing use of the internet by educators can make this an ongoing process.

School access to sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace may provide opportunities for valuable teacher-guided discussion about cyber bullying, identity theft, managing a digital footprint, ethical behaviour online.

Can filtering software adapt adequately to a school’s needs and standards?