A possible filtering of the internet in the computer labs to prevent students from using MySpace, Friendster or any other social Web site was of concern during the ASCC Cabinet meeting on Monday.

ASCC President Joe Cobarrubio said the reason the internet in the computer labs would be filtered is to prevent students from accessing the social sites and also prevent students from accessing pornography.

There was a recent incident involving a lab technician and an unidentified student who verbally abused and physically threatened the lab tech after the student was asked to log off MySpace.

Campus police were immediately notified.

Students said that one suggestion that they have is to have a time limit that students are able to use the internet.

That was a possibility, Cobarrubio said, because, “that is what colleges such as Cypress and (Cal State) Dominguez Hills have done.”

One of the biggest problems that students have faced is that those who need to use the computer for classroom assignment purposes aren’t getting the much needed access.

Hector Carmona, mass communications major, and Eduardo Cordova, undecided major, both said that they have MySpace accounts and they have used the computers in the labs to access the site, but that they understand the effect it has on those that need to use the computers for their classroom assignments.

“Although, I have noticed that students go on MySpace or Friendster more often in the morning,” Cordova said, “because that is when students are not in class yet.”

Ray Woo, biochemistry major, said that though he doesn’t have a MySpace account he does see students in the computer lab on the website or watching videos on YouTube, but so far he had seen nothing pornographic.

Carmona said that he has been caught using MySpace, “but if I or a student is caught on the site, lab techs do ask you nicely to close the window.”

As for the incident involving the student that pushed the lab tech, both Carmona and Cordova said that unidentified student took it too far.

“That’s taking it too far,” Cordova said, “because does he have to check his MySpace account that bad?”

Carmona does say that being on MySpace is like an addictive drug, but for a student to be that addicted to the site is a bit crazy.

Whether or not the filtering will work, Carmona wasn’t so sure, because there are programs that show you how to unlock the firewall on a computer, “so there are ways to get around that.”