(April 10, 2008) — It’s another day in the computer lab with teacher Bill Reyna and his Technology Literacy class. Freshman Ruben Sarian attempts to do research for his project on Super Smash Brothers Brawl, but when he clicks a link from the search engine page, he is turned away by Barracuda, the ever-present web filter that patrols the district’s internet connection. “The game wasn’t even that bad,” said Sarian, referring to the reasoning behind Barracuda’s presence at Clark, which is to block students from accessing inappropriate content at school. “They have a purpose, but it’s a little too strict. Video games aren’t bad.” Freshman Nika Nabifar has had similar problems. “They block things that are needed, like pictures for presentations.” However, Nabifar doesn’t protest Barracuda’s presence. “I think it’s okay because they block stuff that’s inappropriate for school. But they block rappers, and some actors they don’t let you see pictures.” Nabifar’s project on Mark Wahlberg has been delayed by this very problem. So while many students agree that they don’t need to have access to anything R-rated during class time, there is also some amount of discontent when comparatively innocent and educationally productive keywords and websites are blocked. Even teachers have had issues. “I get frustrated because I can’t get onto youtube, and there are some cool clips of cinematographers’ demos that I would like to be able to show my students,” cinematography teacher William Stroup said. This is just one case where a seemingly education-free site can be used to benefit students, but filters have made this either difficult or impossible. What many may not know, however, is that these filters are not read-only. Educational Technology and Information Services, commonly known as ETIS, can change Barracuda’s filters to give different permissions. Barracuda works by denying access to specific URLs set by the district and by searching a page for specific keywords before allowing the user to view the page. If the page contains too many negative keywords, the page will be blocked. Xavier Marchan, Computer Technician for ETIS, is in charge of taking requests for account changes. A teacher can call ETIS (242 8324) and request that a certain account, or class, be given permission to search certain sites or sites with certain words that would otherwise be disallowed. If the request is approved, students can log into Barracuda with their Novell account name and password, and access the Internet with different permissions than other students. “Just as an example, if a biology class is researching the mating habits of bullfrogs, the teacher can call us and we’ll let those students have access to specific sites or unblock the keyword,” said Marchan. “If your only goal is educational, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re here for you guys.” Students who try this without having had a teacher change their permissions will be able to log in, but all the filters will be exactly the same. While this has always been an option, either few are aware of it or few choose to use it. “I was not aware [that sites could be unblocked],” said Reyna. It is in his class where students most butt heads with Barracuda. “If it was something I knew the district was blocking, and I thought it was appropriate, I would request that it be unblocked. I wouldn’t unblock Youtube. There are things on youtube that I think are inappropriate for students to be watching. They install Barracuda for a purpose. If the district was intentionally blocking a site, I probably wouldn’t request it be unblocked,” Reyna said. However, teachers who don’t know about a problem can’t be expected to do much about it. “Students don’t usually come to me about Barracuda filters. Usually it’s because pictures won’t download, which could be the fault of the filter or the website, I don’t know,” Reyna said. Not all students, however, are at the mercy of the district’s censors and restrictions. “There are websites that email you new proxies every day,” said one anonymous student. “Anyone can use these proxies to easily get past the block. One that lasted almost a year was schoolhelp.hopto.org .” A proxy is a website that reroutes the user to any web page without setting off any filters. New ones appear all the time because as quickly as they come up, Barracuda blocks them.
The battle over Internet censorship
February 2, 2009
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