OTTAWA, February 26, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — After an Ontario Catholic school board pooh-poohed parental concerns over children being able to access graphic pornography using school Wi-Fi networks, saying that the filters were sufficient, one parent decided to investigate the matter, logging into the Wi-Fi network and performing searches using problematic key terms. The ease of accessing graphic content left the parent stunned and disgusted.
“In my own investigation, upon logging into the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) Wi-Fi using the well-known password, my very first two Bing searches easily turned up page after page of hardcore porn images – gay sex, bestiality – screen after screen,” the parent told LifeSiteNews under condition of anonymity.
“I was completely disgusted with how easy it was to search for and view pornographic images.”
Last week parents demanded that the OCSB thoroughly investigate its internet security system after their six-year-old son came home from his grade one classroom claiming to have viewed lesbian porn on school-owned tablets.
The parent told LifeSiteNews that anyone who has doubts about how useless the OCSB filters are can simply drive near an OCSB school, log into the Wi-Fi network, and perform similar searches. The parent noted, however, that pornographic videos did not appear in any of the searches.
“This OCSB claim that only the odd porn image sneaks through is bogus. Their internet filters are a joke. Both my home and work filters are much stronger. Parents who think their kids are surfing safely online in the OCSB board should think otherwise,” the parent said.
LifeSiteNews reached out to the OCSB for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
Earlier this week LifeSiteNews published a report outlining a number of cases in which Ontario children were exposed to graphic sexual images on school computers or on their own devices connected to the school Wi-Fi network.
Tanya Granic Allen, president of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), told LifeSiteNews that her organization has launched its own investigation, with the help of parents, to gather evidence about how widespread the problem is of children being able to access porn through school networks.
“The Ottawa parent’s experience confirms what we’ve heard from several of our supporters since asking them to do these kinds of checks, which is that porn is easily accessible in the classroom, on school devices, and on personal devices using the school’s Wi-Fi. This is completely inappropriate. Viewing porn, even accidentally, robs children of their innocence,” she said.
Granic Allen denounced Education Minister Liz Sandals’ response to the problem that the province’s new controversial sex-ed program will help children, in the words of the minister, “know how to be safe on the internet and also to process what they’re seeing.” Granic Allen pointed out that the word “pornography” does not even appear once throughout the entire curriculum.
“Schools need to do what it takes to protect children now. No parent wants to hear that their young child viewed pornography while doing a research project at school. They want to know that their children will be safe from harmful content online while at school,” she said.
PAFE has started at petition to Sandals, demanding that she stop porn in Ontario schools. As of this writing, the petition has been signed by over 1,400 people.
Granic Allen said that the government should enact a new education policy that requires publicly funded schools to have clean internet.