The new conversation isn’t about book censorship, it’s about internet censorship. A question that I’ve always had is, why are some websites blocked from the school Wi-Fi, but others aren’t? I can easily get on a couple of my favorite social media sites (that I will not name), but if I want to watch Hank Green explain long term memory vs short term memory, or an AP stats video about finding z-score, I can’t. For a while, a lot of kids knew the YouTube password to the school. I understand how this could possibly be a problem, because there are people out there who will abuse this power, but I also think that by blocking certain sites and apps, it’s restricting some of our learning tools. Sure, in elementary and middle school, a lot of websites should be blocked, but by the time we get to high school, there are research projects and assignments we need to research for, but because it has an “inappropriate word” in it. For example, if I want to look up “guitar fingering” I can’t, because the word fingering is blocked form the server. Research is hindered because of the words that are taken out of context. I guess I understand why websites need to be censored, for obvious reasons. But when it interferes with my learning, it makes me angry. The people who really want to access certain websites will find a way. Changing the YouTube password just stalls the access to that website in the school until someone figures out the password, or how to hack into it. It is possible to block words, and phrases. It is possible to block pictures, and YouTube videos. But it is impossible to censor the internet.