I remember walking into my elementary school's computer lab in fourth grade for my first-ever computer lesson in school. Before we were allowed to do anything, our teachers made sure to explain the rules, the most important being: Stick to Yahooligans!

In other words, we were told not to look at any Web sites that we weren't supposed to. I'm not sure, exactly, what "bad things" our teachers expected us, a group of innocent, cheerful-eyed fourth graders, to look up, but it must have been serious.

 
Back then, if anyone—high-schoolers included—looked up inappropriate Web sites on the school computers, they'd get in major trouble. Not only would the school know about it, because it showed up on the server; the school counted how many times a particular student looked up these sites.

Going by the infamous "three strike" rule, if students were caught three times, they'd be kicked off the server entirely. They'd be banned from school computers indefinitely. Or at least that's how I remember it.

 
Although the rules have changed drastically in my community since then, most communities have stayed the same. Today nearly all schools use Internet filters to prevent students from looking up "bad" sites. As a result, sexual health Web sites are being lumped into the "bad site" category and vital information is being withheld from its target audience—teens.

Who's Plugged In?

All public secondary schools in the United States have Internet access, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in Washington, D.C. As of 2002, 98 percent of these schools used Internet filtering software. Internet filters prevent teens from accessing certain Web sites. The filters are useful for schools, because it lets them decide what filter they will use and how powerful they want it to be.

 
The six most popular filters used by schools and public libraries can be set to one of three settings:

• Least Restrictive: Only blocks sites featuring pornography, sex acts, and other "adult"/sexually explicit items.
• Intermediate: Blocks sites featuring pornography, nudity, drugs, weapons, and hate/discrimination.
• Most Restrictive: Blocks sites featuring all of the above plus profanity, tobacco, swimsuits, dating, and (believe it or not) sites on jokes, auctions, and games.
  

 

Filtering Out the Good

Researchers responsible for the Kaiser Family Foundation study See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information called 20 U.S. school districts to find out what Internet filter settings they used. Only one school admitted to using the "least restrictive" setting; the rest were using the "intermediate" and "most restrictive" ones.

 
On the least restrictive setting, only one percent of all health sites are blocked; yet when set at the most restrictive level, almost 25 percent of health sites are blocked. Sexual health sites that educate teens about condoms and safer sex are hit the hardest: Nine percent are blocked at the least restrictive setting, but at the most restrictive level, approximately 50 percent are blocked.

A common misconception is that Internet filters automatically block non-pornographic health information as well as pornography, but this is not true. It is very possible for an Internet filter to successfully allow health information while still restricting visitation of sexually explicit sites. Yet, this only holds true if the filter is kept on the least restrictive setting, where most schools do not keep it, according to the See No Evil study.

Teens Left Behind

Internet filtering of sexual health information is an issue especially for teens. More teens use the Internet from school than home, according to the NCES. Seventy percent of 15- to 17-year-olds go online to look up health information, according to an earlier Kaiser study. And 40 percent go online to research sexual health topics, like birth control and sexually transmitted infections.

Many teens are hesitant to ask their doctors or parents for sexual health info, so they go online to learn for themselves. For example, teen sexual health sites fill the gap for

 
15-year-old Christina White, of Maryland, who goes to a private school and doesn't receive comprehensive sex education.

 
"We don't get sex ed at all. In religion class, the teachers talk about sex a little and tell us we should wait until we're married, but that's about it," says White.

 
Lack of strong sex education programs in school drives many teens online for education, but this is increasingly difficult because of Internet filters.

 
"Teenagers, of course, are often more knowledgeable about sex than adults realize, but there's no doubt that censorship of sex education limits their ability to fill gaps in their knowledge," explains Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, in New York City.

 

Take a Stand

What can be done? Bertin says that teens need to get educated and proactive about their high schools' use of filters. "It's important for students to notify a teacher or librarian when they find that a site is improperly blocked," she says.

 
From there, they can inform their school of the dangers of using filters on the most restrictive levels, whether by making administrators and parents aware of research like the See No Evil study or sharing their experiences of being blocked from sexual health sites.

 
Whatever we do, says Alexia Foster, 17, of New York City, the first step is to "educate people—including Internet providers—so they know the difference between health sites and pornography.


Additional reporting by Contributor Stephanie Nancy Nolasco, 17, of New York City.