Internet access on NSW student laptops restricted to whitelist
October 25, 2008 – 7:43 pmTo me a ‘digital education revolution’ conjures up images of children being doused in terabytes of knowledge, but for the NSW Department of Education it means controlling what senior students are able to access on the Internet using a highly restrictive whitelist of pre-approved websites. I think mine is better.
According to ZDNet.com.au, laptops to be given to students for free will offer 98 categories of accessible websites.
Chief information officer Stephen Wilson said “every internet site that’s known is actually categorised. If it isn’t known, it’s blocked. If you go to a site and it’s not categorised you can’t get to it.” He also added the system is unbreakable. Ummm yes, sure it is.
So for the sake of blocking one or two dodgy websites and to avoid the free laptops being sold by students, the Education Department has cherry picked websites they feel are of value. That is not the Internet and it’s certainly not an education revolution.
Roger Clarke says it would be bad enough of them creating a list of blocked sites, but the notion that they would only allow students access to that which has been approved is incredible.
“What credibility can a government organisation and educational bureaucracy have with the people they’re trying to communicate with when the students, through all of their own devices and through friend’s devices, have access to the world.”
As I wrote some time back, filtering the web restircts the flow of knowledge, shackles education and creates a society where free thought is feared, not encouraged. It produces a generation of people that are a product of Government endorsed information.
21 Responses to “Internet access on NSW student laptops restricted to whitelist”
They block everything.
They even block the US google page.
I run into the filter about 10-20 times
per day, and i try to avoid filteres pages.
What’s more you cannot request a page to be unfiltered, only teachers can, and I have heard they must write a small essay in order to get something un-blocked.
You cannot even bring your mobile internet onto the campus.
By Alexis Shaw on Oct 25, 2008
i think this censorship is fair enough, sites that provide information for students most likely will fall into a catergory that shouldnt be blocked. they had to do something that will show the public that money for computers is being wasted on students (i think the link said yr9-yr12 students) mucking around watching porn instead of studying. the system is obviously not unbreakable, this can be justified it just annoys when the govt extends this censorship like what they are doing with the mandatory ISP filter. it is quite likely there may be some sites that will get blocked that probably shouldnt be, however, sites that really educate about drugs, sex and violence should be classed as education sites and therefore shouldnt be blocked but i only know limited specs of this filter.
By Jarrod on Oct 25, 2008
i think this censorship is fair enough, sites that provide information for students most likely will fall into a catergory that shouldnt be blocked. the govt had to do something that will show the public that the money for the computers isn’t being wasted on students (i think the link said yr9-yr12 students) mucking around watching porn instead of studying. the system is obviously not unbreakable, this can censorship be justified it just annoys me when the govt extends this censorship like what they are doing with the mandatory ISP filter. it is quite likely there may be some sites that will get blocked that probably shouldnt be, however, sites that really educate about drugs, sex and violence should be classed as education sites and therefore shouldnt be blocked but i only know limited specs of this filter.
By Jarrod (repost too many errors, need more sleep) on Oct 25, 2008
Damn, I wish I had said exactly that. I certainly couldn’t have said it better myself.
Jarrod, can you be serious? You seem to assume that the Government is actually able to classify all the appropriate sites on the internet. Maybe you’re not aware of how big the internet is. It’s big, very big.
By Simon on Oct 25, 2008
Hmm… Getting to sites not covered by software whitelist. I know, just reformat the hard drive, reinstall the OS or run a GNU/Linux Live CD like Ubuntu. Problem solved!
By Heidi on Oct 25, 2008
the first time i read this article i incorrectly assumed that all websites were already catergorised before being put on the net, but apparently the govt is categorising everything. many schools block out sites that aren’t really education based, i know my school did. but in this article the govt to take a different approach by only allowing sites that fall into certain categories. your’e right simon the govt couldnt possibly classify everything. perhaps a better approach by the govt was introducing a blacklist of banned sites rather than only allowing categorised sites. alexis if what you’re saying is true this method of filtering is a comlete fail.
By Jarrod (repost too many errors, need more sleep) on Oct 26, 2008
To provide a personal example of the dangers of an blocking list, during the latter part of my education at TAFE, the NSW department of education created a forbidden website list to prevent students from accessing illegal or inappropriate material, perfectly understandable on the surface.
The only problem is that it was a ‘one size fits all’ system which did not quite ‘fit all’, the majority of students had no need to access internet content about hacking statistics, security breaches or new tools to bypass security but it was ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to the education of IT students. The page that informed students that the content was blocked had a contact address where we could request for a site to be cleared and it was usually done within a few days but that drastically reduced our efficiency and any task we performed was on hold until we could access the website which MIGHT have the information we needed. This persisted for months until we manually bypassed the system so we could get some bloody education.
By Aliasalpha on Oct 26, 2008
The NSW Det must take us as total idiots. Chances are they will give us a modified version of linux that will inforce this filter. Whos to stop us from duel booting in to XP or ubuntu
By rick_au on Oct 27, 2008
Right now, the NSW department of education forces school computers to go through their proxy server. In theory, if you took one of those school computers home, formatted and reinstalled, and then used your own connection, you could browse the internet however you wanted.
Are they going to get the filters onto the laptops themselves instead of having them up at the DET? That’s what it sounds like:
“On our laptop model, the first question is how do you prevent them from being sold down at the pub,” said Coutts-Trotter. “Well, you equip them in a way so they are only of use within a DET environment or are only of use for DET students or authorised users, such as staff.”
If so, how are they going to keep them there? As mentioned, anyone could just throw Ubuntu on the thing, unless they’re planning to disable booting from anything but the hard drive. In which case, the thing will be freaking hard to service.
By The person on Dec 1, 2008
The DET takes us seniors as a bunch of retards lol… Seriously, I can’t think of a single teenager of my own age who cannot learn how to bypass this crap. Simply reformat and reinstall OS. Or… There are other methods I know of which are a bit too long to write out… Restrictions?… My ass lol…
By Raziaex on Dec 6, 2008
For all you script kiddies, A program called Proxifier. And a proxy server, anywhere on the internet running on port 110, or 22. None of the DET network block access to those two ports. Try it. I’ve been using it for a year now. Heck.. Even Torrents work.
By Nick on Dec 7, 2008
I went to the DET information session, and pparently students will be able to load applications onto these laptops.
I assume this will make it easier to hack the laptops?
By Ben on Jan 21, 2009
The blocks are terrible!
The DET has blocked websites with important information for schoolwork
Yes, the DET sould block pornography, game,and unappropriate sites but everything is blocked!
By john boymn on Feb 18, 2009
R u people stupid? Blocking websites is a great way for the government to secure the fact that their laptops are being used for educational puposes. Think of all the illegal downloading, emailing, gaming, instant messaging, and other explicit material they could access without the filter. Their blocks are pretty fair, and NO, they do not block US Google, they just get redirected by Google to their own country. The only donwside to this whole olpc scheme is that the laptops will be app-hacked withing weeks, days, maybe even within hours, of subjection to teenagers. In my opinion, this will be a great little net-surfing tool for those with computers already at home, and a great privilage for those who cannot afford, or do not have access to one. Too bad about all those people who do not deserve one, they’ll get one anyway, not look after it, and then they’ll end up losing/breaking it.
Year 10 Student
By nobleambitions on Feb 19, 2009
The internet filter is so stupid. In the last week I was given 3 units of work, that had instructions to go into a certain website. I tried to do so, and got the familiar “Site Blocked” page. I, along with 12 other Tech Conscious students all banded together, and when told to do it at home, respectfully said “no”. The way I see things, if the DET has decided that the resource is not appropriate for school then its not appropriate for school at all…
Of course, it makes research virtually impossible… They say you shouldn’t rely on Wikipedia, but it really is all you can get in NSW schools…
By Alex on Mar 14, 2009
There is some great information on Internet Censorship on the website http://www.TruthMovementAustralia.com.au, however not surprisingly this website is blocked at my school, because it is full of free thinkers who express their thoughts passionately.
I understand that I am a spiritual being who deserves to learn whatever I deem appropriate as long as I harm no’one else - Education in Australia just creates uniformed, government obeying, citizens.
Year 10 students like the one who posted on here saying ‘r u stupid’ (quite ironic I think). Seems to thinks that restricting the internet is a good idea - this generation will be in charge of this nation one day, and when that happens I fear for everyone.
By Year 12 Student on Mar 16, 2009
from wat some teachers r talking about yr10 up dont have 2 worry about restricted websites as we r not gettin the fre computers at all. the only 1s that r getting them r yr9 students and then every yr9 student after that. well so much 4 every senior getting 2 keep them. but would like 2 know hw come NSW gt all that money for the laptops if they r not giving them 2 the student and where is it all going
By yr 10 on May 8, 2009
This is extremely silly.
Yes, from my personal experiences i know that the DET filter is pretty restrictive to a certain extent, but why kick up a fuss about this all?
What else should the DET do anyway? If they unblock all the uncategorised websites, how will they know if those websites contain harmful material or not?
It all comes down to what’s more important- protecting students from unsafe material or allowing them to parade as they will through the internet.
Everyone seems to be complaining about how the filter is blocking important information, but really:
Is it that difficult to send an email and request a site to be unblocked??
The entire point of the system is to protect…letting students simply browse the internet as they will through uncategorised websites without knowing how bad the material is comes across as more stupid than just blocking off all these websites
Sure, they can come up with a more efficient way to filter all those websites but its better than scrapping the filter altogether
As for the laptop rollout, once again- what’s the fuss?
The DET isn’t stupid, they know they’re up against a population of tech-savvy teenagers
As far as I know, the laptops have a whole range of filters so i don’t think it’ll be as easy as people are making it out to be to hack or reset the system
The DET have already installed a tracking device on all laptops and they are completely unaccesible without the DET student password anyway…
And i really doubt that the DET are dumb enough to let the laptops be reformatted or whatever
Thats all i have to say about this issue
Yr 9 student
By random bypasser on May 30, 2009
When they block a website such as TorrentFreak, but do not block games sites I start to wonder why there isn’t a big enough complaint for them to fix that.
By sjena on Jun 17, 2009
haha what a joke
ill hack mine the first day I get it anyway xD
biggest waste of money i have ever seen
apparantley it comes with an adobe suite.
Can you imagine year nine school kids playing with adobe flash? hahah
well actually id use it because im a yr 9 nerd (:
By maclover on Jun 20, 2009