Students To Be Spied On, Censored With School Issued Laptops.

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 3, 2012

Students in Portland, Maine are to be issued laptops that will track their activity and actively block certain websites including social media sites.

Internet filtering software will be downloaded automatically onto the computers when students boot them up at school, reports the Kennebec Journal. However, the restraints will stay in place even when the students are working from home or other non-school premises, including outside of normal school hours.

Sites such as Facebook, Hulu, and YouTube, as well as forums, news groups, games, dating sites, gambling sites, and chat rooms will all be blocked.

According to Peter Eglinton, chief operating officer for the district, the changes are a legal requirement. However, this is not the case, as noted by Doug Levin, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, based in Maryland:

"While federal law requires school districts to take measures like creating an Internet safety policy and blocking sexually explicit content, there is no requirement that social media sites be blocked," Levin said.

Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Education recently issued guidelines explaining that it is acceptable to allow social networking sites and video streaming, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom.

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