“I understand why [the school] blocks some websites, but I just can’t understand why websites like Playlist.com get blocked,” Ben Caler began. Adam Miller nodded as he added his opinion, “I think it’s good to block some sites, but the music sites that keep us focused should be unblocked.” Although plenty of Freedom students can lodge legitimate complaints against the Internet censorship, very few of those students know why or how the school monitors their Internet use. The main reason for the restriction is a federal law called the Children’s Internet Protection Act. This law imposes a series of restrictions upon schools and libraries which receive funding for the E-rate program. Freedom does receive this aid, and is therefore required to comply with the limitations specified by the act. The E-rate program helps provide services, such as high speed internet, to high schools across Pennsylvania. Freedom’s Internet control is managed by a program called Sonic Wall, which searches the website for criteria that is deemed inappropriate. If any of the criteria, including words, pictures, titles, and phrases, is found, then Sonic Wall will block the site. So the next logical question to ask would be who exactly determines what information should be blocked. According to Mr. Hickey, the Sonic Wall program is actually responsible for setting most of the parameters for blocking internet sites. There is relatively no human involvement with the program except for the people who write the program code. This, of course, means that some websites that should be blocked don’t get blocked. Likewise, websites that shouldn’t be blocked often get blocked. “It’s not a perfect system,” comments Mr. Hickey. “The program is only as good as the humans writing the code.” Sites can be blocked or unblocked manually by the school as well. To unblock a site, a teacher request must be submitted. Then, the website is investigated by Mr. Hickey and Matt Scala, the Director of Technology for the Freedom district. If it is determined that the website’s content was mistakenly blocked, then the website can be put back on the school’s “white list.” Teachers can also be given a certain period of time in which a blocked website can be accessed for a school related project, as long as the website is deemed academically useful. “It is a case by case basis for each website,” Mr. Hickey adds. Mrs. Giammaria has used this application several times to show videos on youtube to her freshmen theater arts class. Other teachers have used this application as well with very few problems. Playlist.com is a site frequented by Freedom students that was recently blocked by Sonic Wall. However, the site has been investigated and played on Freedom’s “white list” again so that it can be accessed for student use at school.