Please read the updates at the bottom of this post.
Students and teachers at schools in NSW trying to access EFA’s anti ISP filtering website NoCleanFeed.com might not see what they expected today. A screenshot which shows NoCleanFeed.com in a possible blocked state has been uploaded by a Whirlpool user attempting to access the site from within a NSW public school. Take a look (click for full size).
Can anyone inside the NSW Education network please confirm this. Also, if you’re behind a school or company web filter elsewhere in Australia please let me know if NoCleanFeed or this blog is blocked for you.
UPDATE 11:47AM: Feedback so far is NoCleanFeed.com can be accessed from Sydney Grammar which is a private school and one teacher at a NSW public school is also able to access it (whether students can is still not known).
UPDATE 2:40PM: A new screenshot shows that the NoCleanFeed.com website is blocked in at least one NSW high school, but it looks like it is because of a whitelist system not because it’s been blacklisted. New cap below.
8 comments
Tim says:
Oct 17, 2008
My mother, who teaches in NSW, can access the page. But she said that while a teacher might be able to, a kid might not, so she’ll get a kid to try.
Dan C says:
Oct 17, 2008
I think you might have jumped the gun here. Web filtering software is unlikely to report a DNS error for blocked sites, it is probably just an innocent failure in a DNS server somewhere.
Mike says:
Oct 17, 2008
That may well be the case Dan. If it does turn out to be that, I’ll definitely update the post. In fact I updated it with new details just as you commented.
Edit: I’m also awaiting a reply from the user who uploaded the screenshot to see if it is still occurring.
Wendy says:
Oct 17, 2008
I emailed this to the Minister of Broadband:
There will be many arguments for and against the use of an internet filter. There will be many decent suggestions such as “make it optional for people who want to turn it on”. There will be much indignation such as “I pay a LOT of money for high speed broadband, if you slow this down, you had BETTER compensate me”. And so on and so forth.
At the end of the day, the internet is a highway of information. Information DOES NOT HARM ANYONE. What someone CHOOSES to do with information is an entire new matter. Why don’t you suggest that the Department of Health drug people to reduce the chances of psychotic and homicidal tendencies? Probably because it would be WRONG to take away people’s fundamental rights to live as they so choose on the basis that a VERY small percentage of people may do harm.
Why don’t you think of this before deciding to do just what we condemn other countries for?
After all, the Nazi brainwashing regime started with censorship.
Wendy
Mike says:
Oct 17, 2008
Tim, I take it she works in a public school?
Tim says:
Oct 17, 2008
Yes, at a public school.
Leo says:
Oct 18, 2008
I go to a public high school in Sydney and can confirm that anything with “blog” or “dicussion” in the page description is blocked. With newer websites, they can be accessed, but are soon blocked. However there is reasoning for that teacher mentioned above for being able to see the Nocleanfeed site. With any account, student or teacher, there are odds of about 1 in a 100 of not having their account filtered. I’m not sure if those accounts haven’t been patched up by now though (since half my grade started sharing an unblocked account
)
Fara says:
Oct 26, 2008
i have a question.
can any1 please tell me who monitors the websites viewed by schools in NSW? i mean you know how for example youtube is blocked at schools, so who determines which sites should be and which ones should not be allowed in schools?
thanks