| AUP Addendum | |
| Acceptable use policies are documents usually
drafted by a
school's administrator or committee of faculty, administrators and
possibly parents. AUPs are designed to place responsible use of
technology and the internet with the student. These documents are
used as contracts between the schools and the students which
are signed by
both parties and often times parents are asked to sign.
Many schools
now have AUPs because of the inadequacy of filters that are intended to
block all objectionable material. There are many who feel that AUPs
are a form of censorship. Students may feel they are being censored
from information, communication and the ability to publish their works in
original form. Corporations and entrepreneurs may feel they are
being censored from access to the student segment of
society. School
districts don't always have the luxury of dealing with the law
alone.
They must answer to the public and try to look out for the best interests
of the children they are trying to educate. The original white paper demonstrates the arguments both for and against the use of AUPs in schools and the workplace. Below are updates to some of those arguments along with helpful hints to writing AUPs if this is something a district decides to do.
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| Child Online Protection Act | |
| The COPA itself can be found at
http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/copa.html Janet Reno ordered a restraining order on this act on Nov 19, 1998 which prevented its enforcement for 10 days. http://www.epic.org/free_speech/copa/tro.html On May 13, 2002 the Supreme Court issued a decision barring enforcement of the COPA. www.epic.org/free_speech/copa/ This is a joint statement made by the Internet Fee
Expression Alliance It's understandable that congress tried to pass a law that answers to its constituencies' concerns about the harmful material to children on the internet. This demonstrates the importance of the Constitution and how the three branches of government keep each other in check.
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| Communications Decency Act | |
| The actual act passed by congress in Feb. of 1996 can be
found here:
http://www.epic.org/CDA/cda.html Information on what led to the act being declared unconstitutional. http://www.epic.org/cda/ Additional Resources: http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/cda-index.html
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| Internet Access in the Workplace | |
| I found that the additional resources link on the
original white paper page does not work. The following one is a quick
write up on the decision to uphold the Virginia Law that prohibits
employees of Virginia from looking at sexually explicit material while at
work.. http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12771
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| AUPs - Students/Parents | |
| Don't Sign -- To this argument it might be noted
that filters do not work to the degree they are needed and therefore
should not be relied on alone. Sign -- To the argument that responsibility should lie with the students it might be worthy to note an age. I would be hard pressed to hold a first or second grader responsible for accidentally coming across an objectionable web site.
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| AUPs - Employees/Staff | |
| This issue is somewhat related to Internet Access in the
Workplace and could be decided by law.
Teachers are role models for students whether they like it or not and I think most understand this. As a result this is an issue which could be negotiated into a teacher/staff contract. This would eliminate the need for a second agreement between the employees and their board of education.
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| AUPs - Guest/Community | |
| School computers are in the public domain which would
limit a persons privacy. A tax paying adult might feel that it is their right to use, but these computers could not be restricted to adult use. It would be tough to accommodate the adult's rights without violating those of the students.
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| AUPs - Creating and Applying | |
| Who writes the
document? Who enforces the document? Language Issues that should be addressed Violations and Additional Resources Return to Free Speech and Censorship Addendum |
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