Web limitations for schoolchildren

[Chip Barnett]

     I've got a question about the type of Web access students can
(or should) get at public schools, but let me give you some
background first.  (This is only peripherally related to the
recent thread on limiting URLs.)
     I'm a reference librarian at a rural two-county, two-city
public library, and I'm charged with the technical lead of a half-
million-dollar project among the public library and all four school
districts to get (relatively) high-speed full Internet access to
all the schools and libraries in the area.  All 22 sites will be
connected to each other in a frame relay network via 56-kbps leased
lines.  We'll achieve Internet access through a T1 line, and will
share a central router and three servers (news, e-mail, and Web). 
After two and a half years, we're on the verge of completion, with
the leased lines in and the routers and servers due to be installed
soon.
     The problem is this: The schools are concerned about
protecting their students from nastiness on the Internet, and our
network administrator is pushing a solution that concerns me
greatly.  He's highly intelligent and well educated, an expert on
the Internet and technology in the schools.  He's also a nice guy,
but he wants to protect children by loading onto the central router
a list of approved Web sites; if a site is not on that list, no one
can visit it (students, teacher, or staff).
     (This does not affect the public library, by the way.  Our
patrons will have complete and unfettered Internet access.)
     I've argued that not only will his solution be incredibly
time-consuming to implement, but it defeats one of the primary
virtues of the Internet: being able to explore and find sites and
information that you never even knew existed.  My suggestion is
that we instead use a denied list -- allow students to reach any
site except those on a denied list -- or simply use a commercial
product such as SurfWatch or NetNanny.  My problem is that I don't
know enough about what other schools with existing Internet access
have done, meaning that I'm arguing from ignorance.
     While I'm certainly interested in your opinions and
suggestions, I'm especially eager for two types of information: 1)
Do you know of schools that use an approved list such as he's
proposing?  What has their experience been?  Has learning been
impeded?  2) What has been the experience at schools relying on
SurfWatch-type clients?  Have many of them had trouble with
students still getting into parent-panicking material?
     I'd appreciate anything you can tell me.  Unless you think
this would be a good discussion topic for the list, you might want
to reply directly to me and I'll summarize for the list.  Thanks.
-- 
Chip Barnett (cbarnett at leo.vsla.edu)	Rockbridge Regional Library
(540) 463-4324				138 S. Main St.
(540) 464-4824 (fax)			Lexington, VA 24450