[Lias] Content filtering: how we do it.

[John]

Paul Shirren wrote:
> That is a great toolset. I use shorewall a lot.
> 
> I used to use squid, squidguard and dansguardian when I was putting
> together filtering solutions. These days I would probably look at
> OpenDNS as well.

When I've tried Dansguardian, I've got too much of the stuff I want to 
see, and that's entirely innocent.

> 
> One question though. What year level are these students and is this
> level of filtering really appropriate?

High school. They are "youth at risk," and we are a care school. If 
there's truth in these stories,
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=social+networking+paedophiles
and we were careless, we'd be shut down.

"Of the 8 million children in the UK with access to the internet, one in 
12 says they have gone on to meet someone whom they initially 
encountered online. Police say more than 50,000 sexual predators are 
thought to be online at any one time."

It's not my call, but I don't imagine the board would want to take the 
chance.

> 
> I have become really uncomfortable with over filtering of school
> internet. It has gone well beyond child protection in my opinion and I
> find the motives and justifications for a lot of it are really suspect.
> 
> I have seen a lot of negative impacts on teaching and learning of nanny
> state overfiltering in my brief glimpses into the DECS internet here in
> South Australia. I think it is a huge shame when people like Al Upton
> have their student blogs shut down because ignorant corporates can't do
> a dispassionate risk assessment.
>