The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Online Policy Group have released the preliminary results of a study of Internet blocking and filtering in schools.

Here’s a shocker: it doesn’t work and is harmful to education. The study, whose final results will be made available in October, found:

  • Schools that implement Internet blocking software with the least restrictive settings will block between 1/2% and 5% of search results based on state-mandated curriculum topics.
  • Schools that implement Internet blocking software with the most restrictive settings will block up to 70% of search results based on state-mandated curriculum topics.

As always, Andy Oram’s comments are worth a read.

Also worth reading is this press release outlining educators’ and librarians’ objections to federally mandated “filtering” software.

Rather than protecting children, CIPA diminishes educational opportunities for students nationwide by blocking tens of thousands of web pages related directly to the school curriculums developed after years of careful consideration and approved by educators and local and state school boards.

And yet somehow people aren’t up in arms.