• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Public School Internet Filters

AelictheMysticDruid

New Blood
A
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
5
I do work for the Pinellas County School District in Florida. A company called "Websense", filters internet activity. While trying to access skeptic.com, I was blocked and the term "alternative journals", was displayed.

I then tried websites for Sylvia Browne, John Edwards, Uri Gellar, Peter Popoff, James von Praugh, and other scumbag charlatans. Did I have a problem getting through? Hell No!! What a crock of sh##. The school district will let the students access them, but not skepticism.

So much for "public" education
 
The Tulsa Public School System used to block randi.org (Websense was TPS's filter as well) as an occult website but either the same filter did not apply to teachers or someone wised up.

It's a catch 22, really. I understand both sides; there should be ways to complain/report inaccuracies in the filter.
 
I don't know that much about the Pinellas system (last taught there in early 80's) but Orange County will unblock some things if explained to why they should - though if they do block here (not yet) I suspect argument would not work. On the other hand, even when warned it took them two or more years to get rid of some actually inappropriate sites
 
Try contacting the board and explaining. We have some companies here in Australia that filter content for schools based on either 'banned word' searches, lists of banned sites or a combination of factors. Sites can be let through if those responsible for the filter are petitioned.

I agree that it seems stupid that some sites are let through and others aren't. I'd often have certain pages in the forum blocked due to the language used in the thread, when I worked in a UK school.

Athon
 
This is probably in the wrong forum.

Be that as it may, WebSense is my favorite censorware company ever. They're the guys who posted links to porn sites that weren't blocked by their competitors.
 
I don't work for Tulsa Public Schools anymore, but in reference to Steven's post, Websense blocked eBay's main page all the while allowing anyone to visit any eBay page by way of google search. Once you made it onto eBay's site you could freely use their search engine, log in, etc.

Some filter, I guess.
 
Yes, It is the wrong forum

Sorry,
I am new at this. I've been a member for a while but, working two jobs and raising three kids alone, one a freshman in college and two autistic teenagers, my computer time is very limited.

I'll try to do better. The JREF is very important to me.

I'm a recovering southern baptist with a family that's trying to convince me that I'm going to hell and taking my kids with me.

Attending the last 4 TAMS has made me feel like I can go on because there are people out there that understand and are more supportive than they know. It's kind of like goin' to church once a year, a church where people actually understand the nature of reality.
 
Don't worry too much...there are worse things. I've been a member for a very long time (since 2002) and have only recently went from 15 to about 50 posts due to having extra time.
 
Filters are difficult to implement. Many times a single word can block a good site. In my school district, we have had many legitimate sites filtered and have facebook and myspace come through with no problem. Students can get to blocked sites from links off of other sites. The cache on google is also not blocked. I can still get to JREF however.

http://mistupid.com/ is a site I use in class and it was blocked by our new web filter.

glenn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom