It isn't just drugs and alcohol putting students at risk:
While the internet continues to emerge as an extremely important educational tool, if used inappropriately it can have harmful affects.

That is why school districts across the nation are monitoring students' computer with filtering systems.

The Duluth School District is using this technology to keep its students safe.

The world-wide-web is only a click away for students, which can serve as both a benefit and a hazard.

In order to prevent students from accessing inappropriate things online, the Duluth school district has installed the 8e6 filter.

"We knew it was a need and that's why the filter was good when we added it so it would start blocking that stuff because it's hard to monitor 200 computers."

The school district receives a quarter of a million dollars in federal funds for having the 8e6 filter.

In order to receive this funding the district must follow the Children's Internet Protection Act.

This blocks students from inappropriate images, social networking sites, hacking tools, and anonymizers.

"What an anonymizer is, it allows students to go use what appears to be a safe site but in reality it is just a site that will bypass our filter and go into any site they wish."

All students are informed about the 8e6 filter during orientation.

The filter is regularly monitored by a district employee.

If district officials see that a particular student repeatedly tries to look at inappropriate sites, the school will be contacted.

"We will send that information out to that site and they will call the student in and take disciplinary action, which is usually disabling their account for a period of time."

Even though not all students are happy about the 8e6 filter, the number one priority of district officials is the student's safety.

"We want to assure parents and the community that when they are at the schools we're doing the best we can to ensure their safety."

In Duluth, Laura Langemo the Northlands NewsCenter.

The Duluth Public School District will also begin offering an internet safety curriculum this fall for students, parents, and faculty.