The school board approved a one-year contract on Tuesday to pay $334,985 to use Howard Technology Solutions’ Internet filtering software. District administrators said they took to heart the concerns from the community that the current filtering software was falling short of blocking some inappropriate content.
“We heard you right,” said Eric Hoth, the district’s information security officer. “So we’ve listened to the concerns from every corner of the district, from parents, teachers, administrators, board members and even multiple students themselves have reached out to us.”
NEW SOFTWARE TO BE IN USE IN ALL SCHOOLS BY APRIL
Wake has been testing the new software in a pilot program in some schools since August. The district will begin rolling out it more schools later this month. It’s projected to be used in all schools by April 1.
“I echo sentiments of my colleagues and am looking forward to a way of us ensuring that digital safety has taken place on the online space,” said school board chair Tyler Swanson.
Federal law requires schools to have filtering software on school computers that have online access. It became more of an issue when schools began giving computers to every student during the pandemic.
A Wake County elementary school parent complained to ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner, in January 2024 that her son used his school computer to play a game where one of the choices was whether to be a porn star. The school district told ABC11 that the student accessed the game on a website that hadn’t been restricted at the time on the district’s network.
AVOIDING 'YOUTUBE RABBIT HOLE'
Hoth said students were falling down in a “YouTube rabbit hole.” After seeing a video suggested by a teacher, students could click on other links on the page.
“Soon they’re down this rabbit hole of distraction,” Hoth told the board.
But while the current software could let students see inappropriate gaming videos, Hoth said it might block a biology documentary.
“This inconsistency didn’t just hinder teaching, it creates gaps in the digital safety net we promised our families,” Hoth said.
But Hoth said the new software takes students to a stripped-down YouTube page where only the video recommended by the teacher can be seen. He said schools can create channels showing approved videos.
“The new filter much more effectively keeps distractions at bay,” Hoth said.
SEEING WHAT STUDENTS ARE SEARCHING
The old filtering software could tell the school where the student went online, but Hoth said they wouldn’t know why.
“We couldn’t tell the difference between a student researching their novel or a student trying to get around the filter so that they can harass another student on social media,” Hoth said. “We just saw that both students went to Google.”
Now Hoth said they’ll have much more visibility with what students are looking at online.
“We can see now what’s going on, and teachers are actually able to look into issues on their own,” Hoth said. “They don’t have to call tech all the time. And the logs actually have the context needed to be helpful.”
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