Computer Filtering

One of my favorite RSS feeds I frequently read is Will Richardson's blog. In one of his recent postings he talking about the frustration of schools blocking (what he believes) is too much content (ex. websites). Here is a quote from his posting:

I say this all the time, but I truly believe that filters make our kids less safe. They step off the bus into unfiltered worlds with no context for making good decisions about the stuff coming at them. It’s a huge problem. But on some levels, the bigger problem is what we are doing to our teachers. It insults the profession to not at the very least provide desktop overrides for teachers when they bump up against a filtered site. Have a policy in place to deal with incidents where teachers make poor choices if that’s what the concern is.

Seriously, am I missing something? Why is that so hard to implement?

The only way we’re going to get students, or teachers, to master the Web is to let them use it.

So, what do you think? It seems to me that there has to be a better system than the ones we are now using. Not to mention, is blocking sites really preventing internet misuse (or does it just spark curiosity)? I know in my past experiences as an educator and parent, I think teaching children about how to properly use the web seems like a more positive action. I understand schools are scared of potential legal repercussions of students' internet misuse, but I think schools are responsible (as are parents) to educate youth on proper web use. If there is not a class on internet safety in schools, then where would it be? At home - hmm... considering a lot of kids are more tech savvy than their parents I am not sure that's a rational solution.