Students using the computers in the David O. McKay Library to search the Internet are often met with a big white page that reads, “Your organization’s Internet use policy restricts access to this Web page at this time.”

This is the Websense Enterprise filter that BYU- Idaho employs to block such things as “search engines and portals,” “personals and dating,” and “adult content” from the library’s computers.

Martin H. Raish, library director, said the filters are in place to help direct students to better sites on the Internet.

“Google is the information shallows. We’re taking you to the deep water,” Raish said.

The library subscribes to hundreds of serious scholarly journals, publications and databases that are intended for student use and can be accessed from the library’s Web site.

“You can’t get this stuff on the web,” Raish said. “It’s not free. We pay money for it.”

Raish said the information the school subscribes to is much better for academic research than the information that can be found on regular search engines because it is published by reputable organizations.

The publications are peer-reviewed for accuracy and have verifiable sources.

Raish also said the filters are in place to help students who have trouble with the law of chastity.

“There are students on campus who have problems with pornography, and we want to help them as much as we can. We want to teach people correct principles and let them govern themselves, but sometimes they do a lousy job of it,” Raish said.

Phil Packer, BYU-Idaho’s associate academic vice president of instruction, said there are a lot of things on the Internet that are not in keeping with the mission of this school.

“We’re developing a model of learning by faith and teaching by the Spirit,” he said. “We can’t risk destroying that with things that offend the Spirit.”

Packer added that the filters were not about keeping students from choosing for themselves.

“If students want things, they have places where they can get them, but it would be uncharacteristic of the school to allow them access on campus,” he said.

Students wishing to access Google, Yahoo and other such search engines must use the “open browser” computers, which do not have any type of word processing programs installed on them.

Even then, the open browser computers still block pages like Hotmail and Facebook. Many students are not pleased with this.

“I think it’s kind of dumb,” said Cassie Young, a senior from Alamosa, Colo. “Some people can’t go anywhere else to get it done.”

Raish said outside e-mail is blocked because the school wants students to focus on their on-campus accounts.

“It’s a primary means of communication [between the school and the students],” he said.