Digital Book Banning

School districts all over the country blocked content that sabotaged students’ ability to do homework and limited their health and safety resources.

Photo illustration of an open laptop showing a blurred browser window; an enlarged sign of a red circle with a white line is obscuring the browser window and sticking out of the laptop screen

Online Censorship In Schools Is ‘More Pervasive' Than Expected, New Data Shows

Nationally representative survey data from The Center for Democracy & Technology finds schools subjectively and broadly block students from information online

January 16, 2025 08:30 ET

Collage of five stories from The Markup that won the 2024 ONA General Excellence in Online Journalism and Community-Centered Journalism Awards

Inside The Markup

The Markup Wins ONA Awards for General Excellence and Community-Centered Journalism

The awards honor excellence in digital journalism around the world

September 23, 2024 08:00 ET

Illustration of a child with a backpack and cap seen from behind, standing amidst towering browser window; through a central opening, a sparkling emerald city is visible in the distance

Digital Book Banning

Frustrated by School Web Filters, One Teenager Created His Own

During early COVID lockdowns, a teen raised $1.8 million in venture funding and built a web filter with a team of data scientists and psychologists that he now hopes will help students safely surf the web

July 24, 2024 08:30 ET

Photo collage of a hand holding chalk in front of a chalkboard displaying a red pixelated lock

Digital Book Banning

Online Censorship in Schools Leaves Teachers in the Lurch, Too

Educators describe scrapped lesson plans, laborious appeal processes, and digital dysfunction in response to The Markup’s latest investigation

April 23, 2024 08:00 ET

Illustration of cascading website browsers for sites like Wikipedia, Google, Nasa, It Gets Better and The Trevor Project; the browser windows have an inverted halftone filter that obscures the site's content

Digital Book Banning

Schools Were Just Supposed To Block Porn. Instead They Sabotaged Homework and Censored Suicide Prevention Sites

The Trevor Project? Blocked. Planned Parenthood? Blocked. NASA? BLOCKED

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET

Show Your WorkDigital Book Banning

How We Investigated Web Censorship in Schools

We requested records from 26 districts in 11 states. Ten turned us down on cybersecurity grounds.

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET

Illustration of a pixelated hand holding a magnifying glass, set against a background of overlapping browser windows displaying a lock

Digital Book Banning

Students: Investigate Internet Censorship in Your School District

Virtually every public school filters the web, and blocked websites create a paper trail

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET

Illustration of four pictures of students in overlapping browser windows; multiple browser windows in the background show a pixelated lock over an abstract halftone background

Digital Book Banning

Five High Schoolers Describe the Dangers and Frustrations of Censored Web Access

Their schools block information about The Trevor Project, abortion, microplastics, and more

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET

Illustration of a pixelated lock over two buttons labeled "BLOCK" and "VISIBLE," set over a background of cascading screenshots of websites

Digital Book Banning

Does Your School Block These Sites?

If you are a K-12 student, help extend our internet censorship investigation by connecting to your school’s wifi and clicking on websites to test them.

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET