By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 3, 2006 4:00 AM PST
A teenager at a Pennsylvania school gets caught handing out business cards with instructions on how to circumvent his school's Web filter.
But instead of throwing the school discipline book at him, administrators offer a choice: They'll give him a break if he lets the school's tech people know how he beat the system.
Overwhelming response by parents, teachers and children to "Kids outsmart Web filters," a recent installment of CNET News.com's Digital Kids series, showed that the sidestepping of filters on school PCs is definitely a hot issue on campus (though it's certainly not the only one).
One of the most remarkable responses to the article came from the parent of the Pennsylvania teen. The student's free "Anti-Skool Policy" cards offered two URLs to access Web sites banned by the school. And, unfortunately for the student, they also bore his name, which led to his getting caught.
"My kid did get punished...(but) a bit different from the norm," the student's parent wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "The school would not press the issue if he showed the computer people (from the school) how he did it and explained how it worked.
"This pressure of being responsible for showing the school how the proxies worked, enabling them to block the proxies, had much more bearing on him than tossing him out for a couple days!"
So how are other schools handling this problem?
One IT administrator from a medium-size school district in Colorado wrote that kids accessing MySpace.com was a big problem until he installed a filter from 8e6 Technologies. "We haven't had an outbreak in a month," he said. Others promoted a filter from Websense and "white lists," or filters that direct traffic based on approved sites, not just a revolving list of unwanted sites.
On the flip side, kids touted Web proxies like Hidemyass.com, which even teachers used to access information on the Web.
According to one student: "Another school in the district caught some of the students using a proxy blocker to look up porn, and now it's a districtwide policy that if you use a proxy blocker or something similar, you get an automatic one-day suspension."
Judging by readers comments, it also appears that kids all over the world are savvy to proxies and other tricks for sidestepping filters.
A 15-year-old techie in Australia said that by logging on to his PC at school, he could use "Remote Desktop" to access the school Admin account. "Because they were using Windows 2003 edition, I could log in 'behind' (the teacher's) screen and I could use her computer without her even realizing it!"
From plying proxies to panning profsFilters and proxies aren't the only issue when it comes to education in the Internet age.
College kids are flocking to a site that helps them figure out which professors are hot, and which are not. Academically speaking, that is.
Ratemyprofessors.com, the rating and reviews site that has ruffled some feathers in academia, has nearly doubled its audience in the last year, according to research firm Comscore and the 23-year-old owners of the site. The site drew 724,000 unique visitors in March, up from 385,000 visitors a year ago, according to Comscore.
Part of that growth can be attributed to interest from professors--at least 25 percent of the traffic originates from professors, said Will Desantis, president of the site. But professors have long stuck their nose up at the site: Some schools have threatened lawsuits or banning the site from their networks (there's that issue of proxies again). One professor even began posting a blog called "Ratemystudents" that trashed kids in his class.
"We've been getting less complaints," said Desantis, who bought the Maryland-based company with a partner last October for "seven figures." "Most (professors who are going on) are seeing what they can improve on."
Still, he said, "it's hard to break down the image. We're kind of seen as the bad guy because people look at it on the surface."
Professors aside, the site is attracting interest from advertisers, venture capitalists and "big Internet companies," Desantis said, following a recent investment in Facebook, a social networking site for college kids. Revenue is up significantly, Desantis said, thanks to sponsorship ad deals with companies like National Lampoon. "By midsummer, we'll have a partner, investment or be acquired," he said.
Scarier than MySpace?Perhaps one of the most disturbing trends when it comes to kids and the Web involves adolescents who cut themselves, or "self-mutilate."
Such children are increasingly turning to the Internet to vent and commiserate with others about their secret affliction, according to a new study from Cornell University psychologists.
There are roughly 500 discussion boards devoted to talk about self-mutilating behavior by kids driven to cut, burn or scratch themselves, up from 400 when Cornell began its study a year ago. The study, which was published Tuesday, found that of the 3,200 messages analyzed, nearly a third of the comments were supportive in nature. Another 20 percent of the comments were about triggers and motivation for self-hurting practices.
The researchers said the socializing threatens to "normalize" the behavior. About 15 percent of the comments were for sharing methods for cutting or burning oneself or on concealing the behavior.
Of the surveyed comments, most were written by girls age 14 to 20. "They can easily find each other 24/7, and adults are clueless that this is going on," said Jane Powers, a senior research associate at Cornell and co-author of the study.
The finding makes sense, given that the Internet is a social hub for teens. More than 80 percent of American kids age 12 to 17 use the Net, and more than half of those kids log on daily, according to a Pew Internet study. And because secrecy is a hallmark of self-mutilation, the Internet is attractive for its measure of anonymity. Researchers suspect that up to 14 percent of teens purposely injure themselves as an outlet for emotional problems.
Teen-moods.net, a Web site for depressed teens, is one such outlet for kids who "self-hurt." "I am a cutter and have been since 11 years old and im (sic) 16 now," reads one post on the Web site. "i told my counselor that i dont think i can ever stop....please any feedback or similar stories write me back."
Send insights or tips on this topic to stefanie.olsen@cnet.com.
Stefanie Olsen covers science and technology for CNET News.com. In this series, she examines the young generation's unique immersion in the Web, cell phones, IM and online communities.
Sit down with children when they're online, and make sure they visit only Web sites that are parent-approved. The American Library Association lists great sites for kids on its Web site.
Use child-friendly search engines or one with parental controls. KidsClick, for example, is a Web search site by librarians.
Establish a family e-mail account.
Talk to children about their online activities and online friends because to them, the Internet is an extension of the real world.
Establish rules for the Internet. Studies from Canada's Media Awareness group have shown that children respond positively to established rules.
It's not their fault that they got stuck with the job. You have to be at the top of your game if you expect to ride herd on a group of savvy students.
Recently I added some complex regular expressions that block most proxy sites even if they are not blacklisted. It's a very tricky thing to block the sites you don't want them going to but still allowying access to what they need to get to. Using a whitelist only approach would never work for us. I don't know how other districts do it.
Another thing a lot of people don't realize is how easy it is to setup a proxy bypass off of their home internet connection. If they do it properly it's almost impossible to detect.
There is no easy solution to the problem. You just have to constantly adapt to what the students figure out.
--
Steve - <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://tail-f.net/" target="_newWindow">http://tail-f.net/</a>
most proxy sites even if they are not blacklisted."
Steve,
I work for a school district as well and it is a daily chore to block
a whole list of proxies students are using to bypass our filter.
I was curious about your complex expressions. Could you let me
know what exactly your adding to your filter to block non-
blacklisted proxies.
Thanks!
constantly adapt to what the students figure out."
Why?
ref:
www.radmin.com
To keep up with this issue, you need a full-time employee monitoring the network at all times. Libraries can't afford books, schools can't afford teachers, but society expects them both to be "proxy parents".
Good luck with that. I'll watch what my kids do, show them right from wrong, like my parents did for me and theirs for them. Too bad most parents don't see the need for that effort.
Its free, and nearly impossible for admins to block.
Is it morally right? Should I have it?
Yes and yes
I'm not doing anythign illegal with it, I have logs to prove it, I just hate being told what I can and can't see on the internet.
Have a nice life admins,
Nerds will always win.
And I make more money than you!
1. you cant teach an ond IT new tricks (easly)
2. if we cant find a way around something we write our own
3. the world relys on us to supply them with the technology that they cant live with out
4. kids in Highschool are alot more comp savvy than most IT's in their district buildings
5. there are more but i dont have time to post them
XD i am proud to say that i am one of them
There are also the stories about cell phone companies selling a tracking service so parents can monitor their kids movements and also set certain areas off-limits. It's not that parents shouldn't be able to tell their kids where they can go, that's very reasonable. What bothers me is that these kids are being trained that it's okay, even normal, for their every move to be tracked.
All in all any campaign being sold with the goal of protecting children scares me. Why? Because it's so easy to defend ridiculous policy. All they have to do is say that their opposition is against protecting children and the general public, being easily controlled sheep, will automatically swallow this like they swallow everything else their TV tells them.
But then again maybe I'm just paranoid. Believe me, I'd love to be proven wrong, but in this I don't see that happening.
personaly I dont think a 15 or 16 year old should have a cell phone any way. One it just causes more problems at school, and little junior is going to get pissed at the teacher for taking away their 500$ cell phone and mommy and daddy will have to go get it from the princible. I didn't even own a Cell phone till I was 19, if I needed one, and on rare occasion, I borrowed my pratens one. By the time I was 19 I was moved out and on my own in the military, where you are requred to have one.
punishment is ruthelss and is absolute. whenever someone is caught, i ban them from all school computers. i let them know that i read every email they send or receive in my lab.
if they wanna bypass security, they can do it on a another teacher's computers or in the 'other' school lab.
because of 2 kids, i recently blocked all webmail. the kids know that if youre sitting at a machine that comes up 'mail.google' or 'mail.yahoo', youre finished.
punishment is ruthelss and is absolute. whenever someone is caught, i ban them from all school computers. i let them know that i read every email they send or receive in my lab.
if they wanna bypass security, they can do it on a another teacher's computers or in the 'other' school lab.
because of 2 kids, i recently blocked all webmail. the kids know that if youre sitting at a machine that comes up 'mail.google' or 'mail.yahoo', youre finished.
I must admit though, i am impressed with your commitment to this. I am sitting here writing this from a computer at my highschool, which *I* setup, from the BIOS passwords to the OS. Its an OSX10.4 box, and I am root.
Im a student.
When the teachers are "having computer troubles" I help. When the school board sent some techs in over the easter break to change our school to DHCP , and missed many boxes, cutting them off the network with our main computer teacher chaperoning the Easter trip, I had to go around and change machines. when for whatever reason the server decides that someone doesnt need a homespace, I give peers access to my FTP server.
I carry live CDs. I have a home webserver setup as a proxy, along with a number of mini versions of a number of apps. (putty, opera, etc.)
And you know what? through doing it I have learned TONS of information about how to run FreeBSD, I have learnt how to more effectively manage a network, secure an OS, setup backup utilities. I have saved teachers time and trouble, and I have developed a great interest in technology.
If you scan for mail.google and the like, what a pitty that i will be loging into my home server (which runs qmail) using telnet.
If I care about content, I will be typing sentences that wont trip your lists and copying and pasting them into the form they need to be in for my message.
and when you try to throw me off the system, there i will be, using my laptop and spoofing the MAC address of one of your precious boxes, using a VPN to avoid packet scanning. Sofar it has never hurt anyone. Because kids are always going to find ways around you. there are one of you and many off us, and we are better motivated. We will always find ways around your restrictions. Does it do anygood o stop me accessing a site because it is containing information about a topic the school finds politically incorrect?
welcome to the real world Mr. Anderson, everything can be considered offensive. Actually, according to my religeon (Reborn Fundamenalist Anarchism) it is essential to my religeous beliefs that no restrictions be placed on any access to any information, and that taking actions against anyone who was acting in the pursuit of knowledge is a crime against God. Looks like your keylogger is grounds for me to sue for religeous discrimination.
key logging stops anyone who it truly motivated? In addition to
the other methods mentioned to trivially bypass such
foolishness, simple key replace apps make these attempts
useless. This is not to even mention such silliness as teh 1337
and other such 514/\/9. Do you even know what that is? DO you
REALLY hope to know what kids are saying using key loggers?!
Jeeze. Even with no technical know-how, if I really wanted to get
around your stupid system, all I would have to do is type the
numbers 0-9 and a period, then cut and paste them as needed
into the IP address line of my browser. Similarly, I could use the
full alphabet if I only knew the URL. Your key-logger would be
deaf and blind to this simple hack.
None of this even mentions how this harms an educational
environment by stifling thought.
Congratulations for sharing the "worst educator of the year"
award.
I am a Senior in High School. At our school we have a "one to one" laptop program, every high school student is issued a laptop for them to take home.
On our laptops we have restrictions to where we can install programs (AIM, FireFox). But that doesnt mean that we cant run them. Our district network has Websense for internet filtering (that doesnt stop me).
At my house I have setup a proxy server that also has VPN and Remote Desktop. The VPN support allows me to transfer files to and from my home servers. The Proxy server that I have setup allows me, and other students to get passed the school network. I currently have around 50 accounts setup , one for each user on the proxy.
I dont go around and spred my proxy around the school, but I do give it to people durig class that need it. Even though this is my last year here I still plan on keeping the proxy running for a couple more years.
At my house I currently have DSL, but within the month I will be getting FIOS, which should speed up the connection alot. I am running the proxy off of a HP Netserver that I picked up from a local business. So the only money out of pocket is paying for the internet connection.
what exactly is a "wrong website" and why do I need to be
protected from it? What, pray tell, is "something they shouldn't (be
reading?)"
Seems to me that the ones who have trouble understanding things
are the ones demanding content-based censorship. (Bandwidth
usage is another matter.)
Myspace is over anyways. The second somebody puts a patrolman to watch over a bunch of kids, its over. The only thing you can hope to do is to help your children make the right decisions. It's a scary world, but you have to let go sometimes.
our it is pretty good any tips would be appreciated
thanks alot
Jayme
literate people here that can help me. I want to be able to get around the blocks they post at school. I am not going to pornographic or otherwise dangerous sites, i just want to get through. Please post a response, and soon!!!!
Anyone that thinks a school doesn't have the right to limit what you do on THEIR computer on THEIR network, needs a wakeup call. The real world and a real company could be just that.
You put a companies data at risk, they won't take it lightly, trust me.
You kiddies be careful or you might see yourself in front of judge.
It's rediculous to think that most kids are by passing filters because they want to get to legitimate education websites. Even if a few are We all know, for most the reason is to check personal email, myspace, porn etc, etc. It's a joke. And our youth doesn't need yet another distraction.
Good luck admins. I know it's gotta suck to have to deal with snot nose brats all day.
I find it funny that you say that. It just so happens that we were in the lab for Geo doing research on ecological footprints and I decided to good ol' Wikipedia to help me out. Turns out good ol' Wikipedia was blocked by my school.
I have lots of friends who talk about this ("Dude, Wikipedia's blocked! ***?") and it pisses me off.
Luckily for me, historical Wikipedia articles aren't all blocked.
--------------------------
I've seen tons of sites and employee blogs where they go on and on about how they check email, watch videos, and similar, all during their work. Please don't feed us this "Do that at work and You'll be fired" BS.
63.208.226.42 Go myspace!
PS thats not the only IP for myspace, its also a complete waste of resources and one of many places for yuppies to congregate.
One of the last things a school admin wants to worry about is cleaning up dozens or hundreds of workstations each day because users (students or staff) visited infected websites, either inadvertantly or deliberately.
Most students couldn't care less about protecting their school computer from infection and care even less about preserving network resources for their fellow students.
Website filtering helps preserve internet access by filtering out bandwidth hogging activity.
It preserves computing resources by preventing the infection of school workstations.
Some school filtering solutions have override features. Our school district allows this for school purposes.
If a student needs to access sites that are blocked (for whatever reason), they ask their teacher. If it's for a school project, it's allowed.
If they're caught abusing the privilege, they get a date with the school principal.
If the students are worried about their privacy, forget it. Privacy in a publicly funded school district isn't a right or entitlement. They may as well get used to it.
There is an article in the Dec 05 Windows IT Pro magazine regarding one solution an enterprising SysAdmin at Northern Arizona University came up with to restrict computer use. It uses Group Policy Object restrictions, as well as scripts to control computer access during classes and exams. While it will have no effect on students who bring laptops, it works on classroom controlled desktops, and might be a good start.
With this as a starting point, things could then be adapted to the particular needs of the situation.
Article entitled Lab Security Using Group Policy & IPsec
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/download/48232.zip" target="_newWindow">http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/download/48232.zip</a>
Also, i think schools tend to be focused too much on blocking internet access they sometimes forget about their own network. I remember that a previous school of mine was primarily apple-based, but someone pointed out one day that any student with a windows desktop was free to browse the entire statewide network of school computers. They had spent so much time worrying about a block between the rest of the world and them that they forgot about .. them. Which is worse, a student visiting addictinggames.com or changing his grades and password-protecting unproted networked printers?
In my ICT class last year, there were roughly thirty pupils. Of those thirty, twenty-eight had absolutely no clue about computers, the Internet, and so on, barring the software packages they've been trained to click buttons on, the surface of which they never see beneath. You do not need to worry about them circumventing your security.
The two of us who actually did have the capability to bypass the school's filters would sneer at anything the school admins decided to put in our path. We knew far more than they (MCSEs) did about the network they built and ran. But you shouldn't worry about us. We're the ones who understand what it means to have an interest in a subject, and want a qualification in it. We're the ones who completed all the work set in the first ten minutes of the lesson (anybody who's ever had the misfortune to be in a GNVQ ICT lesson will know this situation all too well) and were bypassing various school security systems out of sheer boredom.
The real question here is why you set up these filters in the first place. If you did it for the sheer joy of getting one over on the kids, then yes, you have a problem here.
If, however, you did it to stop kids being distracted from their work, there is nothing for you to worry about.
I am Twey, an open-source advocate of 16 years; I speak four human languages and can code fluently in assembler, C, C++, C#, Java, ECMAScript, PHP, Perl, bash, and DOS, if one can count the latter excuse for a shell as a scripting language. I am not your problem. Don't patronise me by trying to figure out a way to make your network, the workings of which I know better than you do, turn against me. Do not judge by age. Those with an interest in learning will defeat any barrier you succeed in establishing. Those without will never figure it out.
Welcome to the dark side of compulsory education.
Bypass firewalls and access blocked websites.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.myschoolproxy.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.myschoolproxy.com</a>
Bypass firewalls and access blocked websites.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.myschoolproxy.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.myschoolproxy.com</a>