It’s the 5th period, and the temperature has dropped to 29 degrees. That means indoor recess. You are excited to go to the auditorium and play some video games with your friends. But when you enter a fun website, all that pops up is the giant lock and the big blue word that says: Restricted.

Over Summer break, many games were blocked by the school district.

Blooket, Snake and Slither.io, Shell Shockers, and even Cool Math Games. But not just games are blocked. Sites like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, which could be beneficial for learning.

As stated by bark.us, “According to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), 98 percent of schools are now filtering all website content that is available to students.”

The school is required to block almost any site if it has anything to do with a game or something inappropriate. But, sites like Youtube could be helpful as they hold many different educational channels and videos to help students learn.

Ethan Harrison, a 7th grader had this to say about the blocked sites: “For me, blocked sites and games have had a mixed effect. Although they are meant to keep us away from bad things on the internet and prevent us from getting distracted, some websites aren’t bad, but meant for good. Some websites like chihuahuaspin.com are just purely meant for me to have some sort of satisfaction and are completely harmless. Also, there are some websites I regularly used in school to help me make projects and link videos that are blocked, leading the final project of my work to be not as good.”

Blocked sites can have a negative effect on student work and output of many projects. This could lead to worse grades and an overall decline in a student’s learning.

Another 7th grader, Ben Malloy also shared his opinion. “I find it very annoying when I’m trying to do my research for a school project. Usually, half of the sources are blocked and that makes it very difficult to do my work. Even though the school provides many sites to use, it’s not like they have everything, especially if it’s something very specific. I would be really glad if the school turned off the blocked Chromebook sites and I think others would be happy to.”

He also argues that sites he uses to research are blocked and it affects his work in the same way it affects Ethan, by preventing him from seeing a wide variety of sites and resources.

The other side of the argument is that these sites are distracting to students.
According to the website Fenced.Ai, “With access to the internet, students are getting more freedom. Students whose parents use parental control apps and restrict access to various websites can use the educational institution’s internet. They also use the school’s internet for illegal activities. Therefore, nowadays, most schools block everything on the internet.”

Most schools block the sites because of too much freedom for the students, resulting in the kids playing games, watching TikTok, or listening to music during class.

Overall, the blocked sites have both benefits and drawbacks for students’ learning and teachers’ teaching.