The following blog post appeared on my personal website on January 7, 2007 with the title "Senseless Web Filtering." A week or so later I received this letter from the school:
My school uses Websense to filter students' Web access. The network administrator has restricted a handful of categories, including "Freeware and Software Downloads," "Tasteless," "Shopping," among dozens others. All outgoing page requests are checked against Websense's master database, and the connection is denied if the URL shows up in one of the restricted categories.
I am frequently prevented from accessing a legitimate page that is blocked for questionable reasons. Examples include KrazyDad, blocked for his amazing mathematical screensavers, and Kotaku, blocked under the broad category of "Games." In the cases that I reach a website that I think ought not to be blocked, I send an e-mail to the school's network administrator and explain why I think it should be unblocked.
Most recently, I was denied access to deviantART because it inexplicably falls under the category of "Freeware and Software Downloads." I shot off an e-mail, but this time I received an unexpected reply:
Ryan,
After speaking with Mr. During [the principal], it was decided that requests for blocked site changes will only be accepted for review when submitted by a teacher or administrator.
Patti MacCheyne
Network Administrator
Dryden Central Schools
607-844-8694 x 9266#
This is irritating. While the Children's Internet Protection Act requires that schools and public libraries censor content deemed harmful to minors, it allows the filter to be removed "to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purpose." When the unconstitutionality of CIPA was argued in front of the Supreme Court by the American Library Association, the Court upheld the law but reinterpreted it such that an adult's request for unfiltered access must be fulfilled.