The Internet has many useful applications, including research and multimedia for learning.  But more and more DeWitt students are interested in the social aspects of the Internet.  The ability to instant message friends, to text message, to develop personal web logs or blogs and to post a variety of multimedia (audio, pictures, video) to the web has made it a socially stimulating place to be.  Many of the sites that allow high levels of interaction also contain inappropriate content are blocked at school.  This means that much of the education about how to safely use the site, or even when not to do so is left up to parents.  Although there are many ways that Internet safety is taught at school, parents are now more often asking for help in addressing this subject with their children.  The following links are excellent web pages to use to research how to best develop a plan for Internet safety.

DeWitt Public Schools Internet Safety Links

Internet security at DeWitt Public Schools includes three aspects. We have very high expectations that our students will have positive experiences on the web when all three aspects are put into play.

The first protection that is in place is the network use acceptable use policy. Each student with assistance from their parents must read and sign the acceptable use policy prior to using the computers at DeWitt Public Schools. This policy is an agreement by the student to always attempt to remain on educationally appropriate web sites. Having the student participate in the process of staying safe on the web increases greatly our chances of being able to protect him/her and allows the student the opportunity to make positive choices in his/her education.

The second layer includes teacher monitoring. Teachers at DeWitt Public Schools monitor students as they use the Internet on the computers. Each teacher guides students toward web sites that are appropriate and educationally relevant to the subject matter of the class. Computer labs are set up to allow for teacher observation of student work and in some cases software is installed that allows the teacher to remotely observe student activities and if needed to prevent Internet access.

Finally, the DeWitt Public Schools has a web filter in place that protects students from accidentally viewing inappropriate web pages. The filter is called SmartFilter and is made by a company called Secure Computing. The filter is category based, and is updated regularly to include new threats as they are developed. The filter prevents access to flagrantly inappropriate sites, however it is not perfect. There can be lag time between the time a new threat is on the Internet and the time it is discovered and disallowed. An example of this might be the social networking site MySpace. The filter didn't initially block the site as social networking was not a category blocked. As these type of sites became a problem, Secure Computing added a new category, allowing us to block many known inappropriate social networking sites. Additionally the filter recognizes images by their text based names, if nothing in the name of the image is inappropriate the filter has no way of blocking the picture. This usually is a problem when students use image searches, however the appropriate uses for image searches outnumber the chances of hitting inappropriate content and so image searches themselves are not blocked. Instructions are available for popular image searches regarding how to change settings to prevent the inappropriate images, however controls cannot be set on a system wide basis.

If any of the above strategies breaks down, Internet safety is jeopardized.  The DeWitt filter is a great tool, however it takes cooperation from all levels to keep the students safe on the information super highway.  SmartFilter has a page where users can check web pages to see if they are blocked, as well as suggest pages that should be blocked, this site is listed below.

Secure Computing SmartFilter Web Address Checker

Some parents may want to add an Internet filter to their protection strategy at home, below are a few links to commercially available products that can be used on home computers to limit access to inappropriate web sites.  Please note that this list is not an endorsement of any of the products and is here for informational purposes only.

CyberPatrol
CyberSitter
NetNanny