The Austin Independent School District has a policy that I’m sure many people know about, which blocks many different websites. This firewall blocks everything from pornography to educational resources, and is too strict.

 
Many kids log on to their phones or school computers every day and browse the Internet while on school Wi-Fi. Many if not all of those students may or have come across a blocked site and that was the end of it.

 
Appropriate or not they can do nothing about the firewall unless they wanted to turn on their cellular data and get a $20 charge when they go over their limit.

 
One of these websites, YouTube, has been blocked since nearly day one. YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, so it has a lot of traffic and videos; many of these videos prove helpful to students.

 
Yet students cannot access these helpful, or even required videos if teachers tell them to watch one. This leaves our school district at a disadvantage, with a smaller amount of student resources that could potentially affect grades.

 
Many students in the district are considered “economically disadvantaged” probably less at this school than some others. But, if you are one of the “disadvantaged” you may not have Internet access at home, and may depend on school Internet to get schoolwork done.

 
Personally, I have to go on the Internet every night to do my homework so I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone who doesn’t have that privilege.

 
The district also doesn’t give proper reasoning for blocking any of these sites; you can go to a site like YouTube and see the reason it’s blocked is because it is on a blocklist, or a site like Tumblr, which is blocked for “friendship contenta.”
Come on now, really. I didn’t know we weren’t allowed to have friends anymore, but lets stay on track.
Some sites should stay blocked, and I can give the district that much, there’s probably some unique people out there who would try to access pornography while in the middle of class. You can keep those sites blocked. I’m interested in the sites that could actually prove useful, like YouTube and its tutorials.

 
It doesn’t need to be fully unblocked 24/7 either, I know its possible to turn the firewall on and off at lunch, before or after school, or even in designated areas.

 
That includes social network and game sites as well, they can be blocked during class hours as long as you like, but how hard would it be to unblock them at specific times of the day.

 
Sometimes if you are on the school computers you may come across a website with an ad on it, and the firewall will block that ad and slap it onto the middle of your screen.

 
Is it really necessary to block an ad, the firewall unblocks the ad and makes whatever your trying to see on the screen eclipsed by an AISD logo.

 
I find that the district contradicts itself, buying all these cheap computers and trying to integrate technology into schoolwork, then taking away the only logical reasons to get them in the first place.

 
As a self-appointed representative for my peers, I think that we are a very unique generation, one that adults have not seen the likes of before.

 
We are more exposed to technology and different influences, and are accustomed to them, yet when they are taken away from us we are expected to find other means of acquiring information. What are we expected to do, use the books that still aren’t provided?