Getting around school site blocks

October 28, 2007 By

Does your school block sites like MySpace or Facebook? I was hanging out with Maryam’s family and friends tonight and the kids started comparing ways to get around the system. Of course I turned on my cell phone’s video camera, which immediately got everyone but Patrick to be quiet. He gives up the goods.

Tips? Add a period to the end of URLs, so www.facebook.com becomes www.facebook.com. — the kids say that often works. So does visiting international versions of your favorite sites.

Me? I just turn on my cell phone’s wireless data system (I have a Verizon Wireless card) and say hell with IT folks who try to keep you from doing what you want to do. But if you’re a 13-year-old kid that isn’t economically possible.

Do note how astute they are in sharing information. I bet this same conversation is going on between lots of people tonight. How about in China? Iran? Saudi Arabia? You bet!

I gotta have a talk with Patrick about the porn thing, though. It’s not easy being a parent in these times. Clamp down too hard and they just won’t tell you the truth (lots of Patrick’s friends tell me their parents have no clue what they are doing online).

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Jonathan Lackey

Robert,

I think that circumventing IT folks is an important life skill. Technology can be used for good or evil – so it pays to know how to work around it. Who says we will live in a fair, free, just society all our lives? It was neither fair nor free 40 years ago if you skin was the wrong color, or if you looked too poor, or if you were a girl.

Um, just as a side note, Wikipedia is a great starting point, but is weak sauce as a resource. If I was teaching, and I got a paper with wikipedia references in it, I’d be disappointed that the student couldn’t find the real sources the article was based on.

(With the obvious exception of internet-mostly phenomena like webcomics, or Warcraft, though I look forward to the day when there are enough danah boyds in the world that you wouldn’t need to rely on Wikipedia for that kind of thing.)
Jonathan Lackey

Robert,

I think that circumventing IT folks is an important life skill. Technology can be used for good or evil – so it pays to know how to work around it. Who says we will live in a fair, free, just society all our lives? It was neither fair nor free 40 years ago if you skin was the wrong color, or if you looked too poor, or if you were a girl.

Um, just as a side note, Wikipedia is a great starting point, but is weak sauce as a resource. If I was teaching, and I got a paper with wikipedia references in it, I’d be disappointed that the student couldn’t find the real sources the article was based on.

(With the obvious exception of internet-mostly phenomena like webcomics, or Warcraft, though I look forward to the day when there are enough danah boyds in the world that you wouldn’t need to rely on Wikipedia for that kind of thing.)
Northern

@26,

Circumventing authority is NOT a good life skill. Schools, by federal and most state laws must block certain content if they desire funding.

Learning to circumvent it shows an anti-authoritarian streak, and is not something we want our kids being taught or exposed to. Disagree all you want. I think schools should expel any child intentionally getting around or attempting to get around/subvert boundaries. Likewise, sharing the information on school property or using school resources should result in the same punishment.
People who say this kind of stuff breeds good techies should be flogged. It doesn’t.
I spent five years as a security engineer. I finally stopped playing the game and recommended that employers don’t blacklist sites. Whitelist them. It’s much more effective. I once help a customer set up a security solution that employed a proxy server for outbound traffic, a firewall, and a gateway router. His bandwidth came back to normal levels. I whitelisted sites for him that were suitable. Schools are starting to whitelist. With the right combo of proxies and firewalls, even visiting a proxy server is not going to get you around the filters.
Northern

@26,

Circumventing authority is NOT a good life skill. Schools, by federal and most state laws must block certain content if they desire funding.

Learning to circumvent it shows an anti-authoritarian streak, and is not something we want our kids being taught or exposed to. Disagree all you want. I think schools should expel any child intentionally getting around or attempting to get around/subvert boundaries. Likewise, sharing the information on school property or using school resources should result in the same punishment.
People who say this kind of stuff breeds good techies should be flogged. It doesn’t.
I spent five years as a security engineer. I finally stopped playing the game and recommended that employers don’t blacklist sites. Whitelist them. It’s much more effective. I once help a customer set up a security solution that employed a proxy server for outbound traffic, a firewall, and a gateway router. His bandwidth came back to normal levels. I whitelisted sites for him that were suitable. Schools are starting to whitelist. With the right combo of proxies and firewalls, even visiting a proxy server is not going to get you around the filters.
Don Draper

@24 on: got it. You think Wikipedia even belongs in the same sentence as guns and drugs. Discussion over.”

I never said or implied any such thing. I not sure how you drew such an illogical conclusion. Mr. Lackey above is making my point. Using Wikipedia as any sort of authoritative reference source is laziness. And teachers that accept it as an authoritative reference are also being lazy. Pretty much by definition Wikipedia is innaccurate as some point in the day, week, month,year. There are a plethora of examples of where Wikipedia is or has been out and out wrong on things. Yes, it’s supposed to be corrected, but how do you know what you are looking at needs to be corrected if you are not an expert on the subject. That is the risk with Wikipedia. I wouldn’t bet my term paper or thesis on it as a resource.
Don Draper

@24 on: got it. You think Wikipedia even belongs in the same sentence as guns and drugs. Discussion over.”

I never said or implied any such thing. I not sure how you drew such an illogical conclusion. Mr. Lackey above is making my point. Using Wikipedia as any sort of authoritative reference source is laziness. And teachers that accept it as an authoritative reference are also being lazy. Pretty much by definition Wikipedia is innaccurate as some point in the day, week, month,year. There are a plethora of examples of where Wikipedia is or has been out and out wrong on things. Yes, it’s supposed to be corrected, but how do you know what you are looking at needs to be corrected if you are not an expert on the subject. That is the risk with Wikipedia. I wouldn’t bet my term paper or thesis on it as a resource.
http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth Alfred Thompson

When I was a student, back before the Internet, encyclodedia usage in research papers was very limited. You could use them as a starting point but you had to use other sources as well. This is no different from putting limits on Wikipedia. People just get too worked up about Wikipedia because they think that paper encyclopedias are getting placed ahead of it and actually that is not always true.

Don the point I was making was that educational uses of the Internet are blocked more effectivily than non-academic sites because teachers don’t have the time or willingness to play games with power crazed IT people. Students do but students are less interested in the educational sites.

@Northern: “School is for learning, not socializing. Full stop.”

That is sort of like saying “school is for learning, not reading.” In fact socializing is an important part of what school is about. Spend some time with kids who were homeschooled all their lives and that will open your eyes some. Sure they are “educated” in that they often know a lot but their social skills are often underdeveloped. Kids need to socialize in school or they risk missing out on important life skills.
http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth Alfred Thompson

When I was a student, back before the Internet, encyclodedia usage in research papers was very limited. You could use them as a starting point but you had to use other sources as well. This is no different from putting limits on Wikipedia. People just get too worked up about Wikipedia because they think that paper encyclopedias are getting placed ahead of it and actually that is not always true.

Don the point I was making was that educational uses of the Internet are blocked more effectivily than non-academic sites because teachers don’t have the time or willingness to play games with power crazed IT people. Students do but students are less interested in the educational sites.

@Northern: “School is for learning, not socializing. Full stop.”

That is sort of like saying “school is for learning, not reading.” In fact socializing is an important part of what school is about. Spend some time with kids who were homeschooled all their lives and that will open your eyes some. Sure they are “educated” in that they often know a lot but their social skills are often underdeveloped. Kids need to socialize in school or they risk missing out on important life skills.
Matthew

From the looks of things that kid could use far more physical activity, and less dicking around in front of a screen.
Matthew

From the looks of things that kid could use far more physical activity, and less dicking around in front of a screen.
Ron

@29 Alfred, isn’t the type of socializing you are describing not accomplished via Facebook? I agree that socializing is a very important aspect of school. But I’m pretty sue that doesn’t mean having the kids sit in front of a monitor during lunch and recess and between periods. I’ve yet to see a redeeming educational value of giving elementary and middle school kids access to Facebook during school hours
Ron

@29 Alfred, isn’t the type of socializing you are describing not accomplished via Facebook? I agree that socializing is a very important aspect of school. But I’m pretty sue that doesn’t mean having the kids sit in front of a monitor during lunch and recess and between periods. I’ve yet to see a redeeming educational value of giving elementary and middle school kids access to Facebook during school hours
Gary

I work as an IT Techie at a school in the UK and when i was at school i used to break the filters all the time and i find that kids like that are very helpful and most will share there knolage with me.

But the filters are there for a reason (although we are very loose on them here eg. facebook ISNT blocked) and if i find a kid who is breaking my filters and wont share knolage with me but will with other kids i do make sure they have a harse punishment
Gary

I work as an IT Techie at a school in the UK and when i was at school i used to break the filters all the time and i find that kids like that are very helpful and most will share there knolage with me.

But the filters are there for a reason (although we are very loose on them here eg. facebook ISNT blocked) and if i find a kid who is breaking my filters and wont share knolage with me but will with other kids i do make sure they have a harse punishment
http://jjesse.wordpress.com/ Jonathan

Robert,

Once again I have to disagree with you on something. Teaching your kid to ignore the rules is bad parenting.
Speaking as a former teacher, I would reject any paper that sites Wikipedia as one of its sources, use other resources to find the information including books. School filters and blocks are there for a reason. Rules and laws are there for a reason.
You kid has just learned a life leasson: “Obey only the rules I want or rules I agree with” I’m so proud the next generation will be raised with that mindset.

Jonathan
http://jjesse.wordpress.com Jonathan

Robert,

Once again I have to disagree with you on something. Teaching your kid to ignore the rules is bad parenting.
Speaking as a former teacher, I would reject any paper that sites Wikipedia as one of its sources, use other resources to find the information including books. School filters and blocks are there for a reason. Rules and laws are there for a reason.
You kid has just learned a life leasson: “Obey only the rules I want or rules I agree with” I’m so proud the next generation will be raised with that mindset.

Jonathan
Pingback: Social Networks, Web 2.0 and Schools « Bryn’s Blog
Richard

where does this patrick kid go i might know him. and his last name
Richard

where does this patrick kid go i might know him. and his last name
Jit

I love it how Robert doesn’t reply when he knows he is wrong
Jit

I love it how Robert doesn’t reply when he knows he is wrong
http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

Jonathan: most of the great entrepreneurs I know broke the rules.

As for knowing you’re right. Keep believing that and see where you go. Our educational system is one of the worst in the world and you all are asking me to abide by it? Sigh.
http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

Jonathan: most of the great entrepreneurs I know broke the rules.

As for knowing you’re right. Keep believing that and see where you go. Our educational system is one of the worst in the world and you all are asking me to abide by it? Sigh.
http://www.myspace.com/ihavebiologywithyou Anna

It’s easy for any adult to say that they think it’s alright for wikipedia and other useful websites to be blocked- but as a high school student, it’s not right.
I’m on my school’s newspaper and want to write interesting stories that the student body would want to invest time in reading, but with resources cut off because of the many, many websites that are blocked, and because there are students who don’t have computers at home, student’s grades can suffer.
I mean, for heaven’s sake: sanrio.com, the company that created hellokitty, is blocked on the very computer I’m on right now, as well as barbie.com! Does that make any sense at all? I don’t forsee Matel putting up some hot barbie porn on their website anytime soon.
On top of all this, the reason school’s started blocking pages like myspace and facebook anyways was because it’s “dangerous”. I can tell you that more so than not, when girls are raped by someone who they met on myspace, or a 12 year old is kidnapped because he or she gave too much information out on myspace, it’s the victim’s own fault. Go to google, do some research, and see for yourself- molestors don’t automatically go to a young girl’s myspace and telepathically know where she lives- in some cases, girls have GIVEN these men personal information and FLIRTED with them in messages.
How about instead of blocking kids off from these pages (which also goes against the first amendment), they teach us to not give out information that could potentially put us in harm’s way?
From a student’s perspective, all I have left to say is that it pisses me off when faculty go to an unnecessary extent to feel as though they have more control- especially when in less than two years I’m going off to college and will have only learned that at my high school everything was blocked- not precautions to avoid dangers that they’re supposedly trying to prevent.
http://www.myspace.com/ihavebiologywithyou Anna

It’s easy for any adult to say that they think it’s alright for wikipedia and other useful websites to be blocked- but as a high school student, it’s not right.
I’m on my school’s newspaper and want to write interesting stories that the student body would want to invest time in reading, but with resources cut off because of the many, many websites that are blocked, and because there are students who don’t have computers at home, student’s grades can suffer.
I mean, for heaven’s sake: sanrio.com, the company that created hellokitty, is blocked on the very computer I’m on right now, as well as barbie.com! Does that make any sense at all? I don’t forsee Matel putting up some hot barbie porn on their website anytime soon.
On top of all this, the reason school’s started blocking pages like myspace and facebook anyways was because it’s “dangerous”. I can tell you that more so than not, when girls are raped by someone who they met on myspace, or a 12 year old is kidnapped because he or she gave too much information out on myspace, it’s the victim’s own fault. Go to google, do some research, and see for yourself- molestors don’t automatically go to a young girl’s myspace and telepathically know where she lives- in some cases, girls have GIVEN these men personal information and FLIRTED with them in messages.
How about instead of blocking kids off from these pages (which also goes against the first amendment), they teach us to not give out information that could potentially put us in harm’s way?
From a student’s perspective, all I have left to say is that it pisses me off when faculty go to an unnecessary extent to feel as though they have more control- especially when in less than two years I’m going off to college and will have only learned that at my high school everything was blocked- not precautions to avoid dangers that they’re supposedly trying to prevent.
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http://myspace.com/ Anissa J.

I wonna know if someone nows anyways to get around school blocks???
http://myspace.com Anissa J.

I wonna know if someone nows anyways to get around school blocks???
http://bebo.com/ mary lee

do you think you can unblock bebo from school
http://bebo.com mary lee

do you think you can unblock bebo from school
Jakester

Yeah, every proxy or other site you guys suggest are blocked in Meridian, Idaho.
Jakester

Yeah, every proxy or other site you guys suggest are blocked in Meridian, Idaho.
Ryan

Woooooooooow. You guys think it’s bad parenting to show him how to get around the system????First of all, ALL of my computer classes are so boring that i finish within 5 minutes and my teacher then tells me to wait until the bell rings 1 hr and 25 min later!!!
If they really care about getting us off sites that we get on when we have NOTHING to do then they would do a better job.
Ryan

Woooooooooow. You guys think it’s bad parenting to show him how to get around the system????First of all, ALL of my computer classes are so boring that i finish within 5 minutes and my teacher then tells me to wait until the bell rings 1 hr and 25 min later!!!
If they really care about getting us off sites that we get on when we have NOTHING to do then they would do a better job.
Jimi

ok my question is how do i get past the blocking system 8e6 technologies i have tryed it all proxys anonimyzers whatever u want to call them if tryed to change the url up and all kinds of stuff so if wana give it a go then try it out all i want to do is get on http://www.runescape.com at school while i have no work.
Jimi

ok my question is how do i get past the blocking system 8e6 technologies i have tryed it all proxys anonimyzers whatever u want to call them if tryed to change the url up and all kinds of stuff so if wana give it a go then try it out all i want to do is get on http://www.runescape.com at school while i have no work.
bryan

okay….well how about this….im f”ing deployed in iraq right now and i can’t check out my fucking myspace…..so all of you grow up and just leave it all be
bryan

okay….well how about this….im f”ing deployed in iraq right now and i can’t check out my fucking myspace…..so all of you grow up and just leave it all be
Liam

As a student at a collage in Australia I find it very unfair trying to access websites and finding them blocked in my free time. I bring my own laptop and find that I can’t play games, talk to friends or even look up websites that are considered to be based on things they aren’t, so I find myself bored just sitting, looking for tips on how to get around it…..

With the porn issue, I know from experience that If you are looking for porn ya gonna find it one way or another and It couldn’t hurt if they find out what it looks like to have sex, I was extremely curious when i was younger and well, Google helped me out.

Well nice blog ya got set up, more power to ya
Liam

As a student at a collage in Australia I find it very unfair trying to access websites and finding them blocked in my free time. I bring my own laptop and find that I can’t play games, talk to friends or even look up websites that are considered to be based on things they aren’t, so I find myself bored just sitting, looking for tips on how to get around it…..

With the porn issue, I know from experience that If you are looking for porn ya gonna find it one way or another and It couldn’t hurt if they find out what it looks like to have sex, I was extremely curious when i was younger and well, Google helped me out.

Well nice blog ya got set up, more power to ya
mary

i need help i’m done early can’t do anything after and i have 1hr and 37 mienutes left!
mary

i need help i’m done early can’t do anything after and i have 1hr and 37 mienutes left!
Caro

Ugh.
I’m at school trying to just use google, and that’s even blocked.
What’s the point of being in a computer science class if we can’t make our required websites at the school?
It’s stupid and I hate it.
Caro

Ugh.
I’m at school trying to just use google, and that’s even blocked.
What’s the point of being in a computer science class if we can’t make our required websites at the school?
It’s stupid and I hate it.
Dakota

I’m trying to get on myspace at school and there is no way to get on that works for me…Does anyone know one that works..myspace is the other way that i can keep in touch with the father of my kid and when i can’t get on to read what he wrote me or to be able to get on and write him back then it’s hard to let him know how things are going…I have a 3.7 GPA and only 9 weeks left of school…I need help.
Dakota

I’m trying to get on myspace at school and there is no way to get on that works for me…Does anyone know one that works..myspace is the other way that i can keep in touch with the father of my kid and when i can’t get on to read what he wrote me or to be able to get on and write him back then it’s hard to let him know how things are going…I have a 3.7 GPA and only 9 weeks left of school…I need help.
http://myspace.com/_jessicaBALLER jessica

calm down old p33ps. like srly. kids need myspace @ school(: so stfuuu
http://myspace.com/_jessicaBALLER jessica

calm down old p33ps. like srly. kids need myspace @ school(: so stfuuu
http://www.i4i4.com/ claire

its quite good pretty easy 2 get round them especially school
http://www.i4i4.com claire

its quite good pretty easy 2 get round them especially school

Getting around school site blocks

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