The company expects to have about 100 schools in 12 states online by the end of the year. The company says this closed network will protect students from much of the inappropriate material on the Internet. Instead, schools' only costs are for insurance and an extra phone line. It also sells advertising from non-computer companies that run as rotating ads built into the company's Web browser. They are constantly displayed in the lower left corner of the screen.
Advertisers can then use the data to microtarget students.
These practices, and the unprecedented potential for direct marketing through computers, spark sharp questions from consumer and children's advocates. They're forcing kids to watch ads. Even worse is the tracking and the invasion of privacy, which one assumes is used for further marketing purposes. At Skyline high school in Oakland, Calif., one of the original test sites for the system, librarian Mary Walfoort said the results have generally been favourable. Not in the near future.