Why Filters Don't Really Work
from the in-case-you-missed-it-before dept
There's persistent talk from politicians about making laws that force schools, libraries, and other places to install filters to block objectionable websites. The problem is, though, filters are pretty bad, and not just because kids circumvent them. They let plenty of stuff through, but the bigger issue is that they often block plenty of harmless and useful sites as well. One area that creates problems is often medical content, particularly having to do with sexual health -- to many crude filters, it looks just like porn since it uses terms on the naughty words list. The latest example of how and why filters aren't really too great comes from YouTube, where Mexican gang violence is a-okay, but videos showing breast and testicular exams for cancer get labeled adult-only. Clearly this is the type of content that threatens the innocence of youth, and the sort of filth that corrupts young minds -- just the kind of thing we need filters for.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filters Do Work
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Filter is not a substitute....
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Filter DON'T work
That's exactly why filters don't work as an effective mechanism for blocking unwanted content. They are dumb and primitive systems that follow a basic set of rules with no ability to accurately interpret what they are filtering.
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As a student...
Not only do they NOT block inappropriate sites (I know this one first hand, last year a friend tricked me into going to a "shock site", which showed very disturbing pictures and shouted "I'm looking at porn")
But they block things that ARE needed. I had photoshop class last year, and new media this year (which both have units on altering pre-existing photos), and with all image searches blocked, its INCREDIBLY difficult to find interesting (appropriate) pictures.
And once, I swear it, my name "Alexander" was blocked on the google search. I was like totally "WTF, mate?"
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As A K12 School Net Admin
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Change the world, don't hide from it.
We need to train our children to think for themselves, and filter their own behavior to live well in society.
Many of society's problems arise from people that have been too sheltered encountering stimuli that they are not equpped to handle with the social filters that they are equipped with.
While I agree that there is no excuse (or need) for some behavior, hiding it may have worse long term consequences than learning to deal with it appropriately.
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Re: As a student...
This isn't a case of the filter blocking it, as it is a case of the people running the filter don't understand what "google" is.
Me: "Sir, are you aware that google is blocked"
Admin: "What's google?"
Me: "Are you joking? You don't know what google is?"
Admin: "I'm not joking. What's google?"
Admin above is not an IT admin, it is a school administrator. There is a big problem with our school system.
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Filtering...
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Re: Change the world, don't hide from it.
Also keep in mind that filtering also keep children from being exposed to pedophiles.
What do those of you that have children think about filtering?
Check this story out: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/LOCAL/westcentral/07/24/ahd.police.web/index.html
THIS IS WHY WE HAVE FILTERING.
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Re: Filtering...
Don't blindly download URL lists for Dansguardian / SquidGard / etc.
The above example blocklist blocks *.akamai.net, which stops windows updates, adobe downloads, and other legit software:P
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Acutally ours is pretty good.
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There are many good filters out there but ...
A lot of the filtering companies have human verified databases which are very accurate. Of course they will never rate all the pages (- how many new sites come on line every day? -) but they will definitely change browsing behavior. Content based filtering is more prone to false positives.
A reasonably well administered filter is a good thing, but as someone said above, filtering cannot substitute for proper supervision.
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There are many good filters out there but ...
A lot of the filtering companies have human verified databases which are very accurate. Of course they will never rate all the pages (- how many new sites come on line every day? -) but they will definitely change browsing behavior. Content based filtering is more prone to false positives.
A reasonably well administered filter is a good thing, but as someone said above, filtering cannot substitute for proper supervision.
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Ok So?
At a school I would say block youtube completely. The video downloads are going to saturate the tube and the kids dont need to be wasting time on youtube at school anyway
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Re: Re: Change the world, don't hide from it.
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Re:
It isn't and they do
The 'adults only' rating comes from your fellow internet citizens and their biases
Is it just me or does anybody else find it disturbing in general that our fellow citizens find a cancer exam more x-rated than someone getting their head blown off?
That's it, i'm staying indoors - you're all freaks! ;0)
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Filter it
Given a child and the choice, I'd have YouTube blocked completely, for the violence, dangerous jackass tricks to be copied and Lesbian twins kissing videos.
But then again, I don't think my choice of filter should be applied to other people's feeds. So I don't see why anyone has the right to complain about the filtering choices I make for my children.
As for AC's 'change the world', no, don't. We don't need a kid safe world, we don't need a world where movies are made for 5 years olds. We need to keep 5 years olds away from movies made for adults.
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Re: Filter DON'T work
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Very good filter for websites
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Prepare them for the real world - spy on them
Many schools now provide grades and feedback to parents via the web. They could simply add a list of URLs that their child has accessed, perhaps flagging any URLs that would otherwise have been filter-worthy, and let parents provide supervision in this area, which is more their responsibility, anyway.
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Re: Very good filter for websites
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Working Bypass
bypass.thezerogroup.com
-Steve
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Feedback
If you want a good Web filter, Look for K9 Web Protection by Blue Coat. My child has tried a pointless amount of times to try to look at naked girls and sex films online, but only to fail miserably. I mean he is a smart boy but i feel proud of myself for blocking these degrading images from my son. I hope this helps the parents of those, select few, young boys who frankly, Have too much testosterone for their own good.
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