“Ultimately they live in an unfiltered world.”Īt the core of the ongoing debate is a law passed by Congress in 2000 that mandates all public libraries and schools that receive federal funds for Internet access install blocking software. In turn, educators, academics, and advocacy groups have renewed calls to revisit school Internet policies, which, despite some progress, continue to deprive children from becoming knowledgeable digital consumers-with the hardest hit apparently being the most disadvantaged students. And a more nuanced digital divide seems to have surfaced, thanks to the pernicious practice by school districts of overzealous Internet censorship on in-school computer networks and on school-issued laptops and tablets that are carried home with students. Still, even as supporters work to promote equitable access through connectivity, deep-rooted disparities linger. In 2013, the Obama administration launched the ConnectED initiative with the goal to connect 99 percent of schools to broadband Internet in five years it also unveiled ConnectHome last year as a pilot project to bring high-speed broadband to over 275,000 low-income households in 27 communities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Oklahoma’s Choctaw Tribal Nation. And like his predecessor, the president is using his bully pulpit to push for change. In the intervening years, the spotlight has pivoted to the so-called “ connectivity gap”-which hurts schools without high-speed Internet connections-and the homework gap-which hurts students unable to access wireless and broadband connections from home.

Some have coined the term “ digital redlining” to describe how advanced technology has been deliberately denied from certain areas based on geography as well as the race, ethnicity, and income of residents. In March 1996, President Clinton and Vice President Gore led 20,000 volunteers in a one-day effort to connect thousands of California public schools to the “ brave new world of mouse clicking and web surfing.” Yet that brave new world remains unconquered for many students and schools, especially in rural and high-poverty communities.

Giving all children access to the Internet and computing became a rallying cry for educators and elected leaders in the 1990s.

Internet filtering software in schools