Internet Boosts Students' Appreciation for First Amendment

Researchers at the Knight Foundation found in 2005 that American students didn't know too much about the First Amendment and generally held the provision in low regard.  An overwhelming majority of the 100,000 students surveyed thought flag burning was illegal, and more than half thought the government could restrict indecent material on the web.  After reading the text of the First Amendment, one in three said it went "too far."

But the internet is slowly changing the way students approach the First Amendment.  According to a trio of social science profs who've studied the Knight Foundation data, students who regularly access the internet value free speech over their non-wired classmates by a significant margin.  Their new book, The Future of the First Amendment: The Digital Media, Civic Education and Free Expression Rights in the Nation's High Schools, lays out these facts:   

• Frequent users of online news sources were 12 percent more appreciative of their First Amendment rights than those who don’t get news online.
• Students who blog to publish their own content show even higher levels of support.
• And 73 percent of chat-room users agree that music lyrics should be allowed, even if deemed offensive, compared with 65 percent of those who don’t use chat rooms.

I typically start each semester by sharing the sobering conclusions of the Knight Foundation's 2005 survey with my First Amendment students.  Its good to know this semester we can start off on a better note.

-Kathleen A. Bergin