A group of Encinitas parents claim their children were exposed to porn on school iPads. NBC 7’s Wendy Fry reports.
A group of local parents claim their children were exposed to porn on school iPads.
The Encinitas Union School District is advising parents to strengthen their home internet filters to keep inappropriate content from downloading on the devices.
Parent Neal Warren spoke at Tuesday's meeting where a group of five parents addressed the school board about the problem.
On Wednesday, he told NBC7 by email: "There have been incidents of children seeing inappropriate images in their classroom on iPads that never left the school. Whatever filters that were supposed to be in place on campus failed where a whitelist could easily solve this problem.
"Parental supervision is possible at home, but what happens when a teacher gives seven year olds free time on a school iPad when there are no parents or effective filters?"
Encinitas Superintendent Dr. Timothy Baird released a statement Wednesday evening, saying the district takes filtering of students' devices seriously.
"At a district level, the filtering system is strong, constantly monitored, and updated accordingly," his statement read. "Teachers and school site staff have a process to inform the IT department of any issues and are trained to discuss, teach, and monitor responsible use of both the iPads and the internet."
However, he said the best filters and lines of defense are parents and staff. Administrators continue to research and suggest special websites and search engines that provide safe searches.
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"The district is also piloting a filtering option through our Mobile Device Management program that will provide an extra level of filtering for iPads when students are off the school network," said Baird. The tool should be available as early as next week.
As school let out at Flora Vista Elementary on Wednesday, parents had strong opinions, not just on the controversy, but on the use of iPads in the classroom.
"I'm afraid of what they're taking out of schools to replace with technology," said parent Aubri Almendariz, who has a fourth grader and second grader in the district. "I do think restrictions are relative, and kids are still exposed to things that they're not ready to be exposed to."
Parent Amy Brightfield said believes technology is the future and kids should learn it now as long as adults carefully consider restrictions.
"There's things that we should limit and things that we should talk about, like how much they should be used, but I think there's definitely advantages," Brightfield said. "I think it's where our educational system needs to be, and needs to be improving on, and I think it's good that they have them here."
