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Rowan County mother says pornography not blocked on 7-year-old son's school-issued Ipad

By Tina Terry, wsoctv.com
By Tina Terry, wsoctv.com

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A Rowan County woman is outraged after she said her son stumbled across pornography while using his school-issued Ipad.

Jennifer Walker said it happened three times while her 7-year-old was at his Salisbury school.

The second-grader and his classmates at Hanford Dole Elementary School are issued Ipads at school. School officials said they are doing all they can to block pornography, but nothing is 100 percent safe.

The Ipads are used to enhance education, school officials told Channel 9.

"He was looking at inappropriate things on his Ipad at school,” Walker said.

The teacher sent Walker a photo of the porn site her son was looking at, and when she confronted her son about it, he said he typed in “girls with trucks.”

“Nude girls popped up,” Walker said.

Walker said it is the third time that has happened at school, and it has led to an investigation by child protective services.

Walker said her son isn’t even allowed to watch PG-13 movies.

"We have no internet. We don't have cable,” Walker said.

Channel 9 took the topic to Candace Salmon-Hosey, the technology head of Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

"We are doing everything in our power to ensure that's reduced as much as possible,” Salmon-Hosey.

Candace Salmon-Hosey said the district uses two filters to block bad sites at school and at home.

“But it doesn't catch everything,” Salmon-Hosey said.

Salmon-Hosey said they can also manually add inappropriate sites to a blocked list as they find them.

"You address one site and another one pops up,” Salmon-Hosey said.

School officials are telling parents to help keep kids safe.

“It can't just be on the school system. It also has to be on the families,” Salmon-Hosey said.

The district said its safety protocols are very conservative and provide more protection than required.

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