Students are already skirting a recent effort by the Toronto District School Board to block network access to Snapchat, Instagram and Netflix, using Virtual Private Networking (VPN) apps to bypass Internet security.
Shari Schwartz-Maltz, spokeswoman for the TDSB, said that the school board is aware students have been using these apps to get around the ban, and it will be working with its Internet providers to increase firewalls.
“Kids are super smart and, just like people use VPNs to get access to Netflix in the United States, there will be some people that will use them to access these sites as well, but we think the numbers are not going to be large,” Ms. Schwartz-Maltz said.
Ms. Schwartz-Maltz added that even though some students are beating the ban, it has not hindered progress the board is already seeing within the school network.
The WiFi block was announced on Tuesday as a temporary measure by the TDSB to help alleviate congestion and to boost network capacity. After reviewing analytics, the school board observed that Internet use on the three platforms had been responsible for 20 per cent of daily network activity.
“May is a very busy time at the schools, when school administrators are entering marks for report cards and completing kindergarten registration,” Ms. Schwartz-Maltz said. “A lot of administrative functions that need Internet access were being slowed down, so we really had to do something.”
The ban is in effect until the end of the school year as the TDSB plans to work with network providers to make improvements toward Internet efficiency in schools. About 47 per cent of schools across the district are equipped with outdated network architecture, according to Ms. Schwartz-Maltz. But a project to improve Internet bandwidth is under way for the summer, she added. The TDSB says regular WiFi access will resume in the new academic year.
Some high-school students interviewed by The Globe confessed that they were unfazed by the measure, with some admitting that they were using VPN apps previously to gain access to prohibited websites on school networks. However, they said VPN apps have become increasingly popular among students since the ban took effect.
“The social-media ban, in my opinion, is unfair,” said NyJah Edwards, a student at Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute. “Social media is used for so many different reasons and, in some cases, we are required to use it for in-class assignments.”
Other students said that the ban might interrupt the regular communication strategies used by students at school.
“Social media is a way of promoting school events and letting students know when things are happening in school, but now, because it’s banned, less people are paying attention to those announcements, and it’s hard to get messages across,” said Beth Dembinski, a student at R.H. King Academy.
Though only temporary, some students said the ban could be a good move toward improving classroom engagement, if it is implemented permanently.
“Many of us can admit that we use our phones during class for non-academic purposes,” said Sarah Campbell, a Grade 12 student at Jarvis Collegiate Institute.
“Maybe the ban is a good thing, especially around exam time, because more students will pay attention and participate more in class.”
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