GEN: Why I want to use Blocking Software

[Gabe Gancarz <gabe@EDMAIL.COM>]

Here's why I want to use a blocking software in my library:

* To prevent students from accessing Web-based e-mail
  and chat groups.

I'm fundamentally against the use of blocking software, and so is my head 
librarian.  I don't like the idea of a software automatically blocking what it 
deems as inappropriate.  We've probably all heard about the breast-cancer example 
by now.  I don't like it when good stuff gets blocked out right along with 
inappropriate stuff.  Anyway. . .

Stuff like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, chat groups, etc. is our biggest problem -- not 
porn.  Our district has a stated policy against students using the aforementioned 
types of things as well as participating in newsgroups and filling out electronic 
feedback forms.  Thus, I simply want to block out stuff that I specify.  In other 
words, I will disable the filter's automatic category filtering mechanism and type 
in addresses that I want blocked.

When used in conjunction with our handy-dandy Mac Network Assistant monitoring 
software and our warning default Web page viewable at 
<http://www.enteract.com/~gancarz/homework.htm>, the blocking of specified sites 
doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me.  I have no intentions of blocking specific 
porn or other inappropriate sites since that's a losing battle.  We're content to 
keep our students on their toes with Network Assistant when it comes to porn and 
other inappropriate stuff.  If we catch someone in the act of looking at something 
clearly inappropriate while we are monitoring from another machine in the library, 
we remotely lock his/her machine, take a snapshot of the page, print it out, and go 
from there in disciplining the student.

I'd rather have a blocking software do the work of preventing students from getting 
to Web e-mail and chat groups when we're not able to supervise the computers.  We 
often have more important things to attend to in the library while still trying to 
ensure that our Internet homework computers are being used for the reason we 
intended.  We do have three stations set aside for browsing, and they have their 
own default warning Web page viewable at 
<http://www.enteract.com/~gancarz/browser.htm>.  I've been testing Cyber Patrol 
lately, and it seems to do the job.  We haven't purchased it yet, but if you think 
you might be interested in it, just set your browser to 
<http://www.cyberpatrol.com>.

Gabe :-)
_________________________________
GABE GANCARZ, Assistant Librarian
Glenbard East High School
Lombard, IL
gabe@edmail.com


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