Seattle Pacific is a Christian University. When it became clear
that almost 7 percent of web sites its students accessed were
pornographic, the Associate Provost was concerned. She thought of
sending offending students warnings, but this proved impractical.
Despite some students’ mixed feelings, sexually explicit sites
are now being filtered, as they are at several other Christian
colleges. Entering students have for some time signed an
agreement that they will not access “inappropriate sites.”

Three categories of sites are blocked: “sexually related
material,” “pornographic,” and “adults only.” In addition to
blocking sites, the university will offer counseling help,
perhaps through Campus Ministries, to students who feel the need
to access them.

Student response has been decidedly mixed. Some feel the
categories, on which there was administrative consensus regarding
their inappropriateness, are general enough to make unavailable
helpful or informational materials which could not be labeled
pornographic. The new regulations might even make it harder for
students to research class assignments. Other students felt
people who look at pornographic sites should not have to be
tempted with them, and that such materials are an intrusion upon
the campus atmosphere the university espouses. Still others felt
that such websites are a symptom not a cause of anti-social
behavior, or that the university was acting as a parent (in loco
parentis). Another criticism was that students might already
have, or might easily get, pornographic images to store in their
computers, and therefore the university’s filtering software will
be ineffective.