Website Blocking: Social media websites state they have age limitations but do nothing to enforce them. Since they do not know the person’s age, they are not liable. Schools, however, do know the ages of their students and should limit access on their computers. This is easily and cheaply done using website blocking. With hardware for as little as $99 library computers can be restricted from accessing adult only sites like pornography and adult dating sites. Elementary school computers can enforce safe searching while doing homework.
Monitoring: Drug use, bullying, and
suicide prevention are major issues in our schools. For as little as $14 per
month Bark+ software will detect those issues and more from messages on social
media. Guest accounts on library computers can be monitored and alerts sent to
counselors when these issues are picked up.
Bark for Schools is free and does both website blocking and
monitoring on software commonly used for virtual schools.
ContactUs@Freedom13.org
and we will discuss how these tools work and what is currently available. You
can also read about these tools in our Internet Safety Book.
