We are using ScreenDoore by Palisade Sys. and we have
found search engines to be a difficult type of site to
block.  Palisade in it's infinite wisdom blocks
altavista, but not google.  Both are extensive search
engines, altavista has a better reputation among
academics, but under ScreenDoor both will fail to block
porn images.  Go to an image search and you will find
that these files are not blocked thoroughly if at all.
We made the decision at West Rutland (K-12) to allow
(un-block) Altavista and to block Google.  We have also
blocked other offensive search engines as we have
discovered them (or I should say as kids have
discovered them).  One that is not blocked is
megago.com, which listed xxx content right on it's home
page.  The actual sites may be blocked, but the
descriptions aren't and that is usually offensive
enough.

For our younger kids, I have set the home page to
kidsclick.org and saved yahooligans, World Book Online
and Find-it-All (through the Follett card catalog
software) under favorites and as desktop icons.  I have
further pointed these out to teachers and assisted them
with doing internet research with elementary students.

I could go on for hours about the hassles of blocking
and over-riding blocks with our Internet Content
filtering.  It could become the bulk of my job, if I
allowed it to do so.

To summarize, the most profound lesson of our
experience with internet content filtering is that we
cannot assume that content filtering is a proper
babysitter for children in our schools.  In order to
keep children safe from inappropriate content, we must
have adults supervising student access at all times.
This is most important with our younger students.  For
our high school students, we have to refer back to our
Acceptable Use Policy and enforce disciplinary measures
for those that access inappropriate content.  Some high
school kids have argued that "if the ScreenDoor doesn't
block a site, then it wasn't my fault that I got to a
bad site".  We simply can't accept the failures of this
piece of technology as an excuse for willful misuse of
computers in schools.

Sorry for long rambling 2 cents

Lisa Garcia
Technology Coordinator
West Rutland School



Quoting Eric Snay <[log in to unmask]>:

> Just wondering if anyone has considered this.  I
regularly use Google, and
> find it to be the simplest and fastest search engine
available.  I realized
> yesterday, however, that Google's "caching" feature
could enable someone to
> access (in a limited fashion) content that is
otherwise blocked with a
> content filter (we're using the Iprism).  By default,
Google allows you to
> alternately access a cached copy of any web site in
it's gigantic database.
>
> The same would apply to other content caching
services, such as Wayback
> Web, which is a great historical archive of the WWW
since its inception.
>
> I suppose the easiest solution is to limit users
to "safe" search engines.
> I wonder how other high schools are dealing with
this ?
>
>
>
>
>
>     o
>   o
>     o
>     .
>     <*))><<
> ......................................................
.............
>   Eric Snay
>   Technology Coordinator,
>   Fair Haven Union High School, Vermont
>   802.265.4966 x215
>