Inside Internet Filtering

Public school students in Tennessee are being blocked from pro-gay websites by the school’s filtering system.  The ACLU has stepped in and threatened to sue while the school system and the filtering vendor stand around pointing fingers at each other for who should be sued.

Educational Networks of America provides the filtered Internet service and contends that the school district sets the policy on what will be filtered.  Jason Callen, ENA attorney said:

The decisions on whether to block certain websites are made solely by the school districts. ENA does not participate in these decisions in any way and is instead simply told which websites to block.

Meanwhile, Oliva H. Brown, the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools said it is the responsibility of ENA to set the filtering policy:

The vendor is responsible for the interpretation of the CIPA requirements and ensuring compliance.  Under the contract MNPS can request additional sites to be reviewed for blocking or unblocking.

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