Digital Laws Discussion Board

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University of Nebraska, Omaha *

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2500

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Information Systems

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Digital Laws 1. How is CIPA harmful to students? Chat GPT Response: The Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is intended to protect students from accessing harmful online content in schools and libraries. However, some argue that it can be harmful to students in the following ways: 1. Overblocking: CIPA can result in overblocking of websites and resources that may have educational value but get mistakenly filtered out, limiting students’ access to information they need for research and learning. 2. Censorship: Critics argue that CIPA can lead to censorship, as it may discourage teachers and librarians from providing access to potentially controversial or challenging content, limiting intellectual freedom and critical thinking. 3. Access disparities: CIPA compliance can be costly, and some schools and libraries, particularly those in underfunded areas, may struggle to afford the necessary filtering technology, potentially exacerbating the digital divide among students. 4. Privacy concerns: Filtering systems may collect data on students’ online activities, raising privacy concerns if this information is not handled properly or if students are not adequately informed about it. 5. Stifling creativity: CIPA’s restrictions on internet access can limit students’ opportunities for creative exploration and innovation, hindering their ability to develop digital literacy skills. It’s essential to strike a balance between protecting students and ensuring they have access to valuable educational resources while addressing the potential drawbacks of CIPA’s implementation. 2. How is CIPA beneficial to students? Chat GPT Response: The Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) offers several benefits in educational to students in educational settings: 1. Online safety: CIPA requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for internet access to implement filtering and blocking technology. This helps protect students from potentially harmful or inappropriate content, ensuring a safer online learning environment. 2. Focus on educational content: By filtering out distractions and inappropriate material, CIPA can help students stay focused on educational resources and assignments, enhancing their ability to learn and complete tasks. 3. Compliance with legal requirements: CIPA ensures that educational institutions comply with legal requirements for internet safety. This compliance helps protect schools and libraries from potential legal issues related to students accessing harmful content. 4. Parental support: Many parents appreciate the reassurance that CIPA provides in terms of their children’s online safety while at school or using library computers. This can lead to increased support for educational institutions. 5. Preventing cyberbullying: CIPA can help mitigate cyberbullying by blocking access to social media sites and other platforms where such behavior often occurs, contributing to a more positive online atmosphere for students. 6. Promoting responsible internet use: CIPA encourages schools to teach students about responsible internet use and digital literacy, equipping them with skills to navigate the online world safely and responsibly. While CIPA has its critics, its primary goal is to create a secure online learning environment for students, and it has been effective in achieving that objective in many educational institutions. The most interesting things that stood out to me in the AI Chat responses were the way access disparities can affect underfunded schools or libraries that are trying to comply with CIPA and the fact that CIPA can prevent cyberbullying. I think it’s safe to say that schools or libraries with less access to funds will also have less access to the expensive filtering systems required to comply with CIPA, but I never thought about it when going through the CIPA resources. It wasn't until my 'conversation’ with Chat GPT that I’d even considered how underfunded schools and libraries could be affected by CIPA. However, I am less convinced that CIPA might prevent cyberbullying. While it may prevent it from happening on school computers, most students nowadays will have a cell phone on them with access to a data plan that wouldn’t be controlled by the school whatsoever. This means students could still possibly have access to social media sites while at school. I do agree that CIPA could help students remain focused

on schoolwork while using school-provided technology, but there isn’t much stopping students from doing whatever they please on their own devices. I thought the responses from Chat GPT regarding the benefits and harmful effects of CIPA were interesting because in a lot of ways their benefits and harms were very similar and almost contradictory at times. While CIPA can lead to overblocking or censorship, it can also keep students focused on educational content and prevent cyberbullying on school-owned technology. While it promotes compliance with legal requirements regarding students accessing harmful content, CIPA has privacy concerns because some filtering systems may collect data on students’ online activities, which can create legal problems regarding COPPA (Federal Trade Commission, 2023). CIPA may stifle creativity, but it promotes responsible internet use. Last week we were required to watch a video about AI that taught us that AI doesn’t “know” anything but uses patterns from every word in your prompt in order to create other patterns based on how often connections appear (Hill, 2023). Compiling this knowledge with the responses from Chat GPT, it’s clear that the AI technology is replying based on what appears next most often. I felt that the responses from Chat GPT were authoritative and accurate regarding the benefits and harmfulness of CIPA. Many of the harms listed by Chat GPT were also prevalent in the Internet Filtering article, which listed many of the harmful effects of CIPA including overblocking (and underblocking) and censorship (American Library Association, 2015). The article also examined how delays in waiting for unblocking can restrict students’ access to the number of resources available. The number one benefit mentioned by Chat GPT was online safety which was also mentioned by the American Library Association when it discussed the internet safety policies regarding CIPA and the requirements of schools and libraries that are benefiting from CIPA (Universal Service Administrative Company, 2022). The second benefit mentioned by Chat GPT was that CIPA helps to keep students focused on educational content, which could be beneficial as sites that are blocked obviously won’t be accessed by students on school-owned technology. I felt that many of the benefits and harms mentioned by Chat GPT were also mentioned in other research, so I felt the AI response was accurate.

References American Library Association. (2015, July 13). Internet filtering: An interpretation of the library Bill of Rights . http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/internet-filtering Federal Trade Commission (2023, February 3). Complying with COPPA: Frequently asked questions . https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-coppa-frequently-asked- questions Hill, K. (2023, June 15). ChatGPT explained completely [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 4Oso9-9KTQ Universal Service Administrative Company. (2022, August 30). CIPA . https://www.usac.org/e-rate/applicant- process/starting-services/cipa/

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