Question for all High School Students?

[C2Ultima]

How many of you attend a high school with internet connectivity with blocks and censors on websites such as (For example) Facebook, YouTube, or this site The Escapist? What are your opinions about it.

I'm in a high school where The Escapist is blocked. I'm using 3G from my phone to connect.

 

[Snork Maiden]

My opinions back in the day used to be "who gives a shit." I never bothered going to a computer room in my free time, so the only times I was ever using a PC was during a lesson, and to be honest I don't know why you would ever need to complain that procrastination tools were blocked during lesson time.

 

[BonsaiK]

I'm not a high school student, but I was one once, and we didn't even have our computers on the internet at all.

At University it was different though, plenty of computers provided for 'research' and the ability to access pretty much anything at all.

 

[the jellyman]

I'm at what I guess is the English equivalent, full boarding. They don't block Youtube and Facebook is blocked at times that actually kind of help you be more productive, so I don't really have a problem with that. Not sure they know the Escapist exists

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I discovered the escapist after I left sixth form, so I'm not sure if this particualr site was blocked but I imagine so. You could still find plenty of unfiltered webcomics, sites and flash games to kill time and really for the most part it was beneficial to keep you focused on the work. However, it also hindered my ability to conduct Historical research when they filtered articles on totalitarian figureheads, kind of annoying.

 

[Wierdguy]

All I know is that there were no blocks or censors at my school, but you could get put on probation or even expelled if you were caught looking at porn.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Bored in class, eh?

Yeah, I used to go a high school like that. I didn't like it, but I guess I understand why they had it. There's sites you can use to get past the censors. Even my teachers used them sometimes. Don't know the URL, but I know they exist.

 

[StBishop]

I'm at what I guess is the English equivalent, full boarding. They don't block Youtube and Facebook is blocked at times that actually kind of help you be more productive, so I don't really have a problem with that. Not sure they know the Escapist exists

The more people that go here, the faster that they'll discover it.

 

[Cry Wolf]

I go to a high school that filters the internet. We just use proxy sites to get around it, but there are times when all the ones we know are blocked. Interesting thing though; the majority of the time I found myself bypassing the filters is when I needed infromation on blocked sites, rather than wasting allocated time. The majority of the time I was using the school's wireless network is when I had work to anyway.

My opinions on the matter though? I'm not entirely against the filtering of the internet, for reasons that are similar to not showing movies of high rating without parental permission, but the filtering is ridiculous. Two examples from previous classes:

I did a TAFE ICT Certificate a while ago, and most of the learning was on your own (we had a terrible teacher). However, most of the websites with the information we needed were blocked under Criminal Skills and Hacking.

I also did a digital art course a few years back. Every single website, whether it was for tutorials or art study, was blocked under inappropriate clothing - not even fucking with you, I only found one actually blocked under nudity - or with no reason stated.

I think students by the age of fifteen or senior level study should be given unfiltered internet access at schools. So much work has to be completed at home or you risk having access removed entirely for bypassing the filter. Nothing pissed me off more then having to sit in a shitty old computer room for two hours unable to do anything because of an overprotective system.

 

[StBishop]

Bored in class, eh?

Yeah, I used to go a high school like that. I didn't like it, but I guess I understand why they had it. There's sites you can use to get past the censors. Even my teachers used them sometimes. Don't know the URL, but I know they exist.

This: http://www.virtual-browser.com/
Enjoy.

Also, that URL may be blocked at your school. Because it's hilarious for the network Admin to do that kind of thing.

 

[EllEzDee]

I used to think it was ridiculous back in secondary school. We used to yank out the network cable at a certain time (after pressing log in, as the "LOADING PERSONAL SETTINGS" bit shows up) until school caught on thanks to a very snitchy twat bag. Then they devised some cheeky method of catching those who do it and giving them a slap on the wrist.

Anyways, now i'm at college, i think it's fine; it stops the **** scabs who can't live without Twitter Twatter from accessing their life support. The problem is that it regularly blocks content i need, like buying sites (when i'm covering e-commerce) or any type of forum, no matter the content.

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

They don't block anything at my school, except for porn I'd think. I'm at school right now using Escapist.

 

[MikeOfThunder]

Just finished University, but I remember even in college everything was blocked. Pissed me off to no end when they blocked IMDB, which for a film studies student was a pretty useful site!

We had these ID scanners all over the college though and someone once hacked into one of them (no idea how) and managed to put meatspin on it for the entire day... now that was funny

 

[vaderaider]

Pretty much everything is blocked at my school. If they block a flash game site then I just find another.

 

[Dunvi]

My opinion is that:

1) in day schools, blocking is pointless. Students will always find a way around it. Furthermore, if we're talking library computers etc., the fact of the matter is that most of their users aren't doing homework and don't need to, they're just passing time while they're waiting for their next class, or their ride home, or whatever. If we're talking blocked wifi against laptops in class, I'm more of a fan of not encouraging computers in every classroom (and asking students who use them to sit in the back). Kill the problem at the start.

2) in residential schools, any type of blocking needs to go die in a fire. To put this in perspective, I went to boarding school. To ensure that we would get sleep etc., they turned off the internet from 11pm to 6am. This was awful. You couldn't access half of your sources for your research papers, it gave the day-students a huge benefit, as well as the people in the outer dorms, and it meant that people who were going to just goof off all night anyway played games that don't need internet access, until their dorm-head accidentally un-passwords their wifi. Completely useless, and counterproductive.

If you can't tell, I'm not a fan of blocking internet ever. I am, however, reasonable, and perfectly willing to accept that while internet shouldn't be restricted, it's perfectly reasonable to restrict students from reaching it in the first place at appropriate times.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I'm currently on the library computer behind the desk :3

We have Facebook blocked and game sites

Not Youtube though

Or this site

 

[Heartcafe]

They don't block in our school.
They actually have a program to watch what you are doing on your screens. Seen it work in real time and it's creepy. Honestly, I'm a little outraged by this partly because I feel like my privacy is being invaded, but what can I do?
But this is only on the computers and phones using wireless access in our school, so if you are using 3G, it's no problem.

 

[hawkeye52]

I used to have certain sites blocked at school but then google cache came around and also the schools IT staff were incompetent since you could just use firefox and the block wouldn't apply.

Also we used to just play quake that was passed around on a memory stick