Internet Filter Blocked Educational Sites, But Left Open Porn
from the reverse-filters dept
The Australian gov't has been pushing for widespread internet filters for a while, but perhaps they should take a look at some of the smaller scale tests being done in the country. Someone who prefers to remain anonymous, alerted me to the news that filters installed for high school students by the NSW education department were found to block educational sites, while letting porn flow through. Of course, with any filter there's going to be some Type I and Type II errors, so this shouldn't be a surprise. But, for some reason, there are many people who seem to think that filters must work, when they really tend to just give a false sense of security - people think that if filters are in place, they no longer need to worry.
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Internet filters
James from the laptops kaufen blog
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Close!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Close!
Dude, you win. Great job. ^_^
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Screw the Aus govt.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Fact of the matter is, none of us are for it. The only reason it is still being pushed for is because "Senator" Conroy is trying to save face. I highly doubt they will get another term.
Thankfully the internet sees filtering as damage and simply reroutes around it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Filter
Governments need to stop thinking they can control the internet. The net is the electronic life of this planet. No one can control where is goes. Politicians use it as a power platform thinking they can gain points by saying "look how much power I have."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Porn is educational
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Filtering
If they really want to filter the big bad Internet to keep the kiddies safe, why then don't they just hire some people to physically be men-in-the-middle? Any web request from a filtered location goes first to some intermediary who would physically have to look at the page and either allow or deny the request. This would give them accountability for each request, as each allow/deny could be logged, and in the current economically tough times could get people off the unproductive dole and get them working on important things, like protecting the kiddies and showing the electorate that the politicians are doing something (wither or not it's a good idea).
Seems like it would be a perfect plan from a politician's viewpoint. Sure it would cost a lot, but it's government money, not real money.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Filtering
It all depends on what the overall goal is. If your goal is to block any and all access to 'harmful' sites, then a whitelist should be used. If your goal is to block most access to 'harmful' sites, while allowing access to all potentially 'useful' sites, a blacklist should be used.
Or you could just educate people of the proper use of the internet when at school/home/work. There are many options available to monitor use and this could be used as a curb to direct people to use the tool wisely.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Filter Fails
When I was in high school we had the (in)famous Bess filtering system and it had a nasty tendency of letting kids go to hardcore porn sites while blocking the rest of us from researching.
After graduating I spent some time doing IT work for a different district and ran into the same problem. Doing any research was highly annoying because blogs (even ones from MSFT and the like) were blocked and we'd have to constantly authenticate ourselves to get to a benign web site.
I haven't worked there for a few years now, but I've kept in touch with the system administrator from there. Guess what? Their response to their filters being inherently ineffective was to tighten them up even more. Way to go, guys. Way to go.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Filter Fails
Then all kids could get off on is text porn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Filter Fails
Blocking images probably wouldn't be too helpful. I recall having several assignments, even in the high school level, that required illustrations and/or photos in them. Cutting off access to them would certainly hinder any in-school lab work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
porn\
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: porn\
[ link to this | view in chronology ]