Sandvig/Legacy

In Legacy a central access barrier is material access since government-housing residents are unable to afford computers or internet access at home. The Electronic Discovery Center in the Sandvig article allows children to have increased exposure to computers and internet. As the article mentions, however, many taxpayers are not willing to fund such establishments because they facilitate play and not learning. But in a neighborhood like that of Legacy, play is productive relative to the alternatives such as drugs, fights and prostitution, which are commonplace there. It is also misleading to say that such facilities encourage play and not learning because the two cannot be separated. I personally have very good typing skills from many years of instant messaging and playing learn-to-type games, which I miss dearly. Sandvig’s article suggests that children do not actively seek obscene websites and can circumvent restrictions on such sites anyway if laws are enacted to prevent such exposure. In Legacy murder, sex, and drugs are common in the neighborhood and therefore internet protection seems like a secondary concern. If the government wants to protect children, it should focus first on solving crime in low-income neighborhoods. It seems the children in Legacy could benefit from a third place like the EDC, and that an EDC would deter them from harmful activities and create a “playful approach to learning” that they may not find at school.