New data shows that internet censorship in schools is “more widespread” than expected

Aliza Siddiq, 15, was in Spanish class earlier this year at her high school in Northern California when a lesson about newscasts was derailed by her school’s internet filter. Her teacher asked the class to open their school-issued Chromebooks and explore a list of links he had curated from Spanish-language news streaming giant Telemundo. The students tried, but each link showed the same page: an image of a lock.

“None of it was available to us,” Aliza said. “The entire site has been blocked.”

She said her teacher was quick to focus and fill the 90-minute class with other activities. From what she recalls, they reviewed vocabulary lists and independently clicked online quizzes from Quizlet – a less dynamic use of time.

New data released this week The D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology shows how often such bans happen nationwide. The nonprofit digital advocacy organization conducted its fifth annual nationally representative survey of middle and high school teachers and parents as well as high school students on a range of technology issues. This year, about 70% of teachers and students said that web filters hinder students’ ability to complete assignments.

Almost all schools use some type of web filter to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which requires districts to take advantage of the federal electronic rate program to obtain discounted rates for Internet and communications equipment to prevent children from seeing graphic and obscene images online. A 2024 investigation by The Markupwhich is now part of CalMatters, has discovered more extensive blocking by school districts than required by federal law, some of which are political, reflecting culture war battles over what students can access in school libraries. This investigation found that school districts are denying access to sex education and LGBTQ+ resources, including suicide prevention. It also found routine blocking of websites that students search for academic research. Because school districts tend to place various restrictions on students and staff, teachers can do this Frustrated by filters like everyone else Because of the complexity of lesson planning.

“Subjective and non-specific” web filtering

The Markup’s reporting helped inspire additional survey questions to better understand how schools use filters as a “subjective and uncensored” way to restrict students’ access to information, said Elizabeth Laird, the center’s Civic Technology Equity Director and lead author of the report.

“The scope of what has been blocked is more widespread and valuable than I think we initially knew to ask for last year,” Laird said.

While previous surveys revealed how often students and teachers reported disproportionate filtering of content related to reproductive health, LGBTQ+ issues and content related to people of color, this year the center asked participants whether they thought content related to or about immigrants was more likely to be filtered. Block it. About a third of the students said yes.

Aliza would have agreed after her experience with Telemundo. The California teen said the number of times she crashes into buildings depends on how much research she’s trying to do and how much she has to do on the school computer. When she took debate classes, she regularly walked around researching controversial topics. A Slate magazine article about LGBTQ+ rights gave her a blocked screen, for example, because the entire news site was blocked. She said she avoids the school Chromebook as much as possible, and does her homework on her personal laptop away from the school Wi-Fi whenever she can.

Three-quarters of teachers who responded to the latest survey said students use workarounds to access unfiltered internet. Laird found this number astonishing. Thus, web filters not only prevent students from accessing the websites they want to access, but also hinder them from completing their homework. “It raises a fundamental question about whether this technology, in trying to prevent students from accessing harmful content, is doing more harm than good,” Laird said.

Nearly a third of teachers surveyed by the Center for Democracy and Technology said their schools ban content related to the LGBTQ+ community. About half said information about sexual orientation and reproductive health was prohibited. Black and Latino students were more likely to say that content related to people of color is disproportionately blocked on their school devices.

For students like Alisa, blocking is frustrating in practice as well as in principle.

“The amount they monitor effectively interferes with our ability to get an education,” she said. Often times, she has no idea why a website is triggering a block page. Aliza said it seems arbitrary and she thinks her school should be more transparent about what it’s banning and why.

“We should have the right to know what we are being protected from,” she said.

Audrey Baim, Olivia Brandeis and Samantha Yee, all members of the CalMatters Youth Journalism Initiative, contributed to this story.

This was the article Originally published on The Markup It is republished below Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – No Derivatives license.