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.
47 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
who cares if it is blocked, there is ALWAYS a way around it. I’m going to run a linux linux system from it anyway. you can do that or simply find a proxy that isnt blocked, even bring your own laptop then tell the dimple minded teachers that it’s a school laptop, that way you can change the internet settings and connect through an external proxy. eg:i change my school’s proxy to that of the tafe.Much more sites are available that way.
By drew on Jul 3, 2009
EDIT:
Who cares if it is blocked, there is ALWAYS a way around it. I’m going to run a linux system from it anyway. you can do that or simply find a proxy that isnt blocked, even bring your own laptop then tell the simple minded teachers that it’s a school laptop, that way you can change the internet settings and connect through an external proxy. eg:i change my school’s proxy to that of the tafe. Much more sites are available that way.
By drew on Jul 3, 2009
I reckon these filtering systems are useful in a sense but at least stop the filters after school ends. A lot of sites with good information is blocked and my teachers are quite commonly frustrated with this. With the filter being introduced after school, the websites with the great information will still be blocked and that just wont let us get the educational resources from it.
By Year 9 on Jul 6, 2009
easy fix with these laptops….just format them and reinstall what ever running system you want
By jase on Jul 9, 2009
The DET thinks they know exactly what they are doing to stop downloading of porn, games and other random stuff, but there is no reason to restrict useful websites. Also what’s to stop you bringing stuff in on a flash drive. Anything that you can get at home can just migrate onto these computers no worries.
By Yr 9 Student on Jul 19, 2009
Every is saying how easy it is too get around these computers but what if you don’t know how to do that??
I can accept that the internet will be filted at school, but when i connect my internet to the laptop why will the thing still have blocked websites…this is so unfair..i can’t afford a bloody computer,this laptop was meant to help us but it not at all bloddy hell!!!!
i pay for my internet why should i be restriced
sorry about spelling and grammer mistakes i went i to a public school
By Angry yr11 on Jul 26, 2009
I definately agree with Heidi.
its so much better making a list of sites to be blocked instead of blocking everything in one go, excepting only a small percentage of sites.
Blocking sites is good for getting us off porn, games etc, but the most annoying thing is when I’m trying to find pictures or information for projects. There just happens to be a really good picture on google images, but guess what, the site is uncategorised so i can’t get to it. When I need obscure pictures, i cant find a decent site at school because its stupid to try and categorise all the sites on the internet.
so i procrastinate and dont do anything in class because i know when i get home i will do the work because the sites are unblocked.
seriously, blocking sites deters me from using school computers. the laptops will probably not be any different.
By Shelley She on Aug 8, 2009
…
1. The BIOS is locked, you can’t hack it unless you’re uber haxors technologyically awesome. For Yr 9.
2. The filter blocks out virtually everything except wikipedia and google. Ask.com, yahoo.com.au, and bing.com are blocked…
3. The whitelist is pointless, as the new useful sites are blocked so we are only stuck with the old, outdated info until DET gets around to unblocking some.
By YR 9 student... on Aug 8, 2009
i live in some godforsaken corner of the state, (wagga) we got our laptops today thats how inefficient our school is, blocking of websites at home gets the blood boiling, i cannot authorise $400 dollars worth of audiobooks + Tv seasons. But the biggest problem is the face that some students are unblocked at home??? NSW DET are a JOKE!!!!!!!!
By Chris Virgona (PISSED OF YEAR 9 KID on Aug 28, 2009
haha, just turn your wi-fi off at school and if you need to use it, dont’ use the wi-fi for more than 3 hours, because during the first 3 hours it downloads policies which filter the internet.
secondly, you can bypass all the filters anyway.
I’ll show you the doors, you have to research yourself.
first way is obvious and that’s proxy’s….
Second way use vmware
third way use http tuneling
simple…got my laptop today pretty awesome, especially with unfiltered internet xd
By Secret on Sep 14, 2009
Unbreakable huh?
Right….What’s to stop the students from just formatting the computer or using a LIVE CD?
Inept bureaucrats strike again.
By Mike Zombie on Sep 17, 2009
Oh my gosh I got onto the best ever porn site on the new laptops it wasnt blocked!
By zorg on Sep 20, 2009
The thing that sucks the most about the laptops is the fact that no exe file can be run if it isn’t already on the computer. Us kids are stuck to using programs like dreamweaver to try and make a work around.
By harry gibbs on Sep 21, 2009
Stop complaining you spoilt brats! It is a free laptop, provided by the government for educational purposes. If you’re not happy, give it to some other kids who are more appreciative.
By anonymous on Sep 29, 2009
I wouldn’t call it a laptop without internet or the ability to use .exe files more like half a laptop
By harry gibbs on Sep 29, 2009
Can anyone tell me why I come across sites blocked for “Education/Reference”?
This is stupid and hypocritical of the DET.
By E on Oct 3, 2009
Oh my god>> i just hate these computers. I swear these are not really going to make people work. I am in year nine and in NSW and in my classes all i see most kids do with these computers is listen to music or play games which they somehow got onto their usbs and then pasted into the computer. ITS like EVERYthing is blocked> even images you want to show on a project or something, YOU CAN’T get these because they even block the images from going through.The person in charge of the roll out of computers in our school had said that the internet is unblocked at home and after school at 3.30 pm. OBVIOUSLY HE WAS WRONG>> we cant do fuck all on our computer, even health sites were blocked and sites that were uncategorised were blocked. It’s just like arresting somebody with no charge or something like that. Our parents have paid taxes and taxes and all they get is a shitty cheap laptop from lenovo with stupid programs (most of them i havent even touched)>< the det is down to shit and they know it.
By Nia on Oct 8, 2009
I HATE THE LAPTOPS THE SHITTY D.E.T HAVE GIVEN US YR > AND I KNOW MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE LAPTOPS WILL AGREE WITH ME> THIS IS NO REVOLUTION OF EDUCATION> IT’S FAR FROM THAT> IF KIDS KNOW THEY WON’T BE REWARDED WITH UNBLOCKED INTERNET ACCESS AT HOME, WHY WOULD THEY TRY TO STUDY AT SCHOOL> THEY LACK OFF AND ARE NOT MOTIVATED> IF THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO INTRODUCE THIS KIND OF SCHEME AND USE TAX PAYERS MONEY, THEY MIGHT AS WELL LET THE KIDS ENJOY THEM WITH UNBLOCKED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET>
By Nia on Oct 8, 2009
These new laptops are so useless, I even wonder if the government asked the kids if they even knew how to operate some of the software on these machines, such as brigit…what a useless piece of crap. At my suburb Lisarow some of the kids from the schools gave themselves admin rights the first hour they got their laptops, which was only 3 weeks ago. I could’ve done it to, but i hesitated due to “the wrath of the government”. pssh, no one has been caught yet so next time someone chooses to give the kids some “hip/new educational tools” everyone is going to just screw them the first day they get them. And I do agree that the government should make a blacklist and not some shitty, “one fits all” system the government should actually get a person filtering new inappropriate content. instead of getting someone to “pick out their favourite sites and then say fuck everyone elses content”.
By Robert_D on Oct 10, 2009
We’ve had this filter for ages.
It blocked Macquarie for some time and the word “prick” in a Shakespeare quote. Sites are often blocked for having one word taken out of context by the filter, or simply for being “uncategorised”.
Evil and perverse things like Gmail are blocked, so the only email that can be used is the DET’s extremely slow and glitchy one.
In order to use the DET filtered internet you must agree to their “terms and conditions”, which, of course, you cannot read until after you’ve agreed.
Before this was put in place my school had a perfectly good filter that blocked porn, MSN and common game sites. But we could still do research at school.
Now, not only has the speed slowed right down, there’s a good chance something you need to look at is blocked for no apparent reason.
Also, I’m not going to be getting a laptop as I happen to be a senior student who isn’t in year 9. *sulks*
By Amy on Dec 2, 2009
Jusus crist Heidi u just have to post all that stuff bout the Linux stuff here. The DET will probably read this and add to the user agreement for the laptops. I got the user agreement and terms of use today and nothing saying you cant run other operating systems but there is stuff saying you cant tamper with the software and hardware including the OS. Ill be getting my laptop on Monday the 7th. And i was planning to do such a thing.
Ohhh the laptops dont have CD drives you need to use LiveUSBs
By Michael on Dec 4, 2009
lol, ok for one I helped verify the new laptops at my school, and they are pretty paper wates, heck half of them froze after the verification, all you need to do is wipe the hard drive and bios and start from scratch, and for the proxy, all you need is the local admin password and a wireless connection and you finished. and I say if you tested 2 computers, one with the government stuff and one default windows, the windows would kick ****in *** for years.
By STE3L on Dec 8, 2009
Firstly, I would like to point out, despite not having my own laptop yet, in one afternoon I broke through the DET’s “unbreakable” filtering software, without setting off any alarms.
I was so surprised myself that I thought I was in a dream.
Also, for all those people out there that keep saying: “stick a live CD in there!” or: “reformat the hd”, you can’t unless you want to break into the BIOS which is strictly monitored by computrace. Even if you change one setting, your computer get’s bricked and tells you to go take it to your Technical Support Officer.
PS. Suck my dick DET.
By Righey on Jan 7, 2010
I remember when the blocked sites first came out in my primary school. it was confusing at first because the teachers didn’t tell us about what had a happened. (although i was in year 4) I was annoyed! I remember that in yr 5 they blocked google images for a couple of months! That shows how much the government knows about “bad sites”. After the idiotic government relised that people were outraged that one o the most popular websites was vlicked for images they unbloced it. They can’t just block what they think is wrong. We are subjected to sexually comments every day and a small banner on a informational website with a woman in a bikini is blocked! that is just stupid!
By James on Mar 9, 2010
sorry about my grammer and spelling above me. :S I forgot to check it.
By James on Mar 9, 2010