Teacher’s Name Candace Perkins Bowen
School/City/State Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Title of Lesson Plan: CIPA and Your School – Part II
Overview and Rationale
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), discussed in a previous “Five for the First” lesson, has enough material for further explorations. For instance students can explore the sites that are blocked and discuss the reason for these being blocked.
Goals for Understanding
• Essential Questions
o If students try to access a site they need for legitimate research and can’t reach it, what are they supposed to do?
o Are the sites being blocked ones that fit the criteria of those CIPA was designed to block? Are some sites blocked that shouldn’t be? Are some sites NOT blocked that should be? (i.e. are they legally pornographic? Obscene?)
• Resources/Materials
Internet Free Expression Alliance and the section about what must be blocked:
http://www.ifea.net/cipa.html
(The following if from that site.)
No funds will be made available unless [the school]
A)(i) has in place a policy of Internet safety for minors … that protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are --
(I) obscene;
(II) child pornography; or
(III) harmful to minors
• Activity
• Discuss the sites students have found were blocked (an assignment from the Part I).
• Discuss what CIPA says MUST be blocked.
• Define pornography and obscenity. (see resource below)
• Compare what is blocked to what is supposed to be blocked.
• Assessment
• Students participate in the discussion and discuss sites they and others cannot access.
• Students question the reasons sites are blocked.
• Students know the basic definitions of obscenity and pornography and how they differ.
References Recommended
LLRX.com, a Web site for librarians with legal definitions and help, includes “Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA): Legal Definitions of Child Pornography, Obscenity and ‘Harmful to Minors,’ by Mary Minow http://www.llrx.com/features/updatecipa.htm