Archive for February, 2010

Here at AskTheAdmin we don’t like filters. We believe that if someone needs to be monitored on the interwebs they should have adult supervision while using it.

To have a block list by keyword or other ridiculous criteria in an educational environment is HORRIBLE. 

Well read the following story from the daily WTF and you decide… Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

For some reason, Violet K. couldn’t show her sex video to the class.

Though the YouTube-posted "Mammalian Reproduction Systems" had loaded for last period’s grade 10 biology class, all that came up now was an all-too-familiar screen:

Content Blocked

Enough was enough! Something had to be done about Bessy.

For Violet, the name Bessy invoked the image of an old woman in a rocking chair, creaking back and forth, watching the neighbors from behind dusty curtains, and lecturing visitors about how strange, modern concepts weren’t good for the sensibilities.

So when the new principal introduced Bess, an internet content-filtering system, it was close enough in name, and certainly in functionality, to be a "Bessy".

"It seems some students put a bullying video online," explained Principal Summers at the first staff meeting of the semester. She brushed a lock of "blonde-but-we’ll politely-not-mention-it was-grey-yesterday" hair from her stern face. "Bess will keep these troublesome sites off the school’s internets."

"Didn’t they get caught because they posted the video?" Violet asked, of the mind that if students wanted to publically document their crimes, they should be given all the self-affixing rope they needed.

"Nonsense," Principal Summers dismissed, "Inappropriate sites encourage bad behavior. Bess removes such temptations. Surely you all want to keep the children safe?"

The rhetorical question got the expected response– a few grumbles, but no objections.

Violet figured that anything ostensibly for the safety of "the children" would be, at worst, a harmless annoyance.

For a while, she was right– until Bessy began meddling in the affairs of science.

Smoke Screen

"What the fail?" Violet exclaimed, mindful that students may be around. She’d hit a Bessy-shaped roadblock while lesson-prepping.

Content Blocked

She phoned Roman, Bessy’s school-board-appointed IT administrator.

"Your site was added to the block list," he confirmed, "It’s been put into the ‘Tobacco‘ category. Is that correct?"

"It’s a research site about ‘Chemicals in cigarette smoke and their effects on the human respiratory system‘," Violet replied, "Of course it deals with tobacco."

"So it is a smoking site?"

"ANTI-smoking! Why is it blocked when I can still access…" she Googled a few choice phrases, "Tobacco Appreciation Society, Bongs Are Fun, Chicks with Sticks… "

"Bess uses keywords to evaluate new sites," he interrupted, "Sometimes– rarely– there’s a false positive. I can add an exception for your site. No worries. Bess is just learning how to keep the children safe."

Banned on a WHMIS

Violet wasn’t sure Bessy had learned the right lesson– nor had Roman.

"What’s the proper procedure when this chemical spills?" she demanded, holding a beaker over Roman’s head.

He jumped back a foot– all the space the repurposed AV-closet-cum-IT-office afforded. "I– what the– what is it?"

"Dihydogen monoxide," she said, tilting the beaker. "Answer!"

"I don’t know!"

"Then look up the MSDS sheet on the WHMIS website!"

Content Blocked

"Category: Dangerous Knowledge!" she said, putting the beaker down.

"But–" Roman typed shakily, "Bess logged the keywords ‘explosives‘ and ‘hazardous materials‘."

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