How are public schools preventing students from accessing inappropriate material on the Internet in 2000?
Given the diversity of the information carried on the Internet, student access to inappropriate material is a major concern of many parents and teachers. In 2000, almost all public schools with Internet access (98 percent) had “acceptable use policies” (AUPs) and used various technologies or procedures, such as blocking or filtering software, an intranet system, honor codes for students, or teacher/staff monitoring, to control student access to inappropriate material on the Internet (not shown in tables). Across all types of schools, between 95 and 100 percent had AUPs. Of those schools with AUPs, 94 percent reported having student access to the Internet monitored by teachers or other staff members (figure 2). Three-fourths (74 percent) used blocking or filtering software, 64 percent had honor codes, and 28 percent used their intranet. As these numbers suggest, most of the schools (91 percent) used more than one procedure or technology as part of their policy (calculated from table 5).
