Teachers Report Increased Use of Filtering Software

Close to 73 percent of teachers with school access to the Internet report that their school now uses filtering software, up from 61 percent in 2000. The data is from a recent report by Quality Education Data entitled "Internet usage in Teaching, 2001-2002.

The actual number of schools that have adopted filtering software is probably higher, as 15.2 percent of the teachers surveyed said they didn't know whether their school used filtering software. More than 91 percent of teachers whose schools were connected to the Internet reported that their school had an Acceptable Use Policy in place, a statistic that has remained virtually the same since 1999.

With the passage of the Children's Internet Protection Act in December 2000, some schools will be required to use a "technology protection measure" and adopt an Internet Safety Policy as a condition of receiving certain kinds of federal educational technology funding.

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