Police usage of the Internet

What are some rights of digital users? Protection, education and validation of truthful postsand content. I know it might be impossible to control the flow of information on the net. We must try to do something to control content of information our kids are exposed to.  The television shows are limited to their information put out there. Movies are rated based on nudity and violence. Video games, music videos, song lyrics and the list goes on of havivg some peramiters related to content to viewers. Why is the internet free of such restrictions? Something that is so dangerous to our youth has no business being in the classroom uncensored and unmonitored. Would we bring a rattle snake into the classroom and tell students to "just stay away from it's bad side?"

Agree!

You bring up some very good points, Susan! And you make a very good case.  I'll try my best to answer some of your questions, respectfully.  

The internet is free of such restrictions opposed on the other entities you mention because the Internet is too vast to regulate; anyone from anywhere can add content or create a website on the Internet.  With how fast it changes, there is unfortunately no way to police it all.  

Most schools, however --if they want to receive federal funding, that is -- are required to put filters on their Internet.  So Internet content is censored and monitored to a certain extent in schools.  Some schools are very strict on their filters, others are more relaxed.  

There is so much good that can be done through the Internet. I believe and know it to be true. There is sadly, probably, much more bad.  

That's why we must teach our students about both the good things and the bad (generally speaking, of course). They need to be aware of the types of bad things so they know what to do, not if but, when they encounter them.  It's up to us to teach them those appropriate actions.  

Thankfully, the modeling and teaching of digital citizenship skills do not fall on just one teacher's shoulders but are distributed among all educators.  I encourage you to seek help from your school's teacher-librarian if you need more assistance.  He or she should be more than happy to help!