An Expat Educator in Asia

One of the technology integration teachers at a Hong Kong school contacted me today to ask about what schools use to filter internet content. I suggested that he use my mailing list to try to get some responses from the bigger schools and that I could do some leg work for the other international schools in Hong Kong who do not check or reply to email. Yep! in 2008, there are international schools in Hong Kong who do not use email! The school I resigned from in 2005 refused to have its own email server because it was worried that it was a security threat! Asia’s world city still has to catch up with the rest of the world in the EdTech area believe me!

Anyway, what came from this teacher’s call to others about internet filtering was some very considered replies. They are shared here with permission.

Dear Xxxxxx,
Hello, I will post my answers for you below.  As a resource for you about this type of question and others related to Technology and Education there is a great website www.edugeek.net.  I’ve seen this discussion topic in their forums.  It might be worth if for you to look at this.

This question is, as you are discovering, not a simple one. 
1. Which school are you with? Position? Name?

XXXXXX School, XXXXX, IT Director
2. Does your school have an internet content filter to keep out porn, violence, etc.?

Yes
3. If so, what filter are you using?

Trend Micro InterScan for Cisco CSC SSM
4. If so, how much does it cost?

Sorry, I don’t know that at the moment, I will see if I can find that for you, it was part of a bulk purchase item for the entire firewall.
5. What is your feeling about the usefulness / efficacy of an internet filter?

I apologize in advance if I go on a bit about my thoughts on this.  I think too often parents expectations are off base and school administration are too afraid of facing this issue head on.  My short answer is: In general schools filter too much and too strongly thus reducing the power of the Internet from its intended purpose, delivering information to the users.

Since you are a primary school, you should have a stricter approach than a Secondary school.  You need to be able to say to the parents that you have a policy that protects the children from MOST inappropriate materials.  You will NEVER be able to block everything and don’t try to.  If you do, your Internet connection will be useless. 

If you ever have a discussion with a concerned parent let them know that it is impossible to block everything and that your teachers would speak with any child who sees anything inappropriate to discuss what they say in an age appropriate manner.  Giggling or yelling at a child who stumbles across Playboy never solves anything other than to entice them to go back later and check it out.

Philosophically I believe that we need to block the obvious, but there are other topics that are blocked that shouldn’t be, so my approach for Secondary schools is different. 

We currently block the obvious: Adult/Mature Content, Intimate Apparel/Swimsuit, Nudity, Gambling, Hacking/Proxy Avoidance. 

We also block, but I am going to have a discussion about this with School Admin, Violence/Hate/Racism, Illegal Drugs, Chat/Instant Messaging, Gay/Lesbian.  These were set up before I arrived. 

My reasons for wanting to remove these blocks are that these topics fall under Social Issues.  They are uncomfortable for some people, but they do need to be discussed with the students and students need to be able to research these topics.  The vast majority of websites covering Illegal Drugs discuss their inherent problem, they don’t say “Hey, let’s do this.”  Yet most schools block drug websites.  Same goes for Racism.  Part of a powerful lesson on racism is to show an example of the kind of “stupid stuff” that a racist website puts out there.  And if you filter out sex, as was done in the first school I worked at, the Biology department couldn’t use online resources to discuss breast cancer, reproduction and so forth. 

Web filtering works to a degree.  You will never filter everything.  Filter the obvious and educate the students about the rest.  Put the responsibility squarely on the students from the start by saying “Bad stuff is out there, but it doesn’t belong at school.”  In actuality, experience has shown me that most students access porn from home, not from school.  There are too many people around to see them doing it.  They usually access it from home, in their bedroom, where there isn’t any web filtering done at all.

That’s my little soap box.  Hopefully I wasn’t too preachy.
XXXX

Dear Xxxxx,
 
1. Which school are you with? Position? Name?
My name is XXXXX, and I’m the Director of ICT at XXXX International School.
2. Does your school have an internet content filter to keep out porn,
violence, etc.?
No. We do not have a content filter, but instead we individually block websites that we experience problems with.

3. If so, what filter are you using?

-

4. If so, how much does it cost?

-

5. What is your feeling about the usefulness / efficacy of an internet
filter?
XXXX does not have a big problem with students accessing inappropriate material on the Internet. Our biggest problem are online games and movie sites, which students use, and that way block computer resources from students who want to do school-related work. We deal with this by patrolling open-access areas, and blocking sites that cause a problem.
 
We have in the (distant) past trialed filtering solutions, but found that any filter that gives adequate blocking, stops us from accessing a lot of resources that we want to be accessing. Our Science department in particular has been adamantly against filtering, as it affects their curriculum.
 
XXX’s view also is, that accessing inappropriate material on the Internet is an educational issue, not something that can be dealt with by using a filter. Students need to be aware that inappropriate material exists on the web, and need to be educated on smart surfing. A recently launched resource on this is http://www.b4usurf.org by BSA (Business Software Alliance), and although it focuses more on intellectual property and piracy, it has resources and lesson ideas for educators.
 
Cheers,
 
Xxxxx

Xxxxxx - from Xxxx International School, High School Technology Coordinator.
 
Not much need to add much to Paul’s reply. However, a couple of items to come to mind
A discussion about this at the conference would be very useful. Primarily the important discussion is about the management of these systems, and if you have them or don’t have them  - not the particular product you get.
We use a product called “Smoothwall” that allows keyword filtering in addition to the “list of topics” approach that all of these products enable. 90% of our problems stem from the keyword blocking mechanism that has the odd characteristic of mistaking perfectly innocent website as Portugese pornography (just one example that would be quite funny if it did not impact access to information and learning quite as much as it does). Keyword blocking does make sense if you believe in trying to block everything “inappropriate” the problem is IMHO it does not work.
Give staff power to unblock websites. Some solutions will enable staff to login with their LDAP accounts and unblock a website for all users. This reduces the amount of time with “unblocking” requests for the IT staff and also brings the conversation back to the classroom as the student can request the teacher to unblock the site. Of course, that is perhaps a rosy scenario - often when students (or teachers) encounter a blocked site they just give up in frustration.
Communication to the community is key no matter which way you go. You need to explain to parents why you don’t have a content filter if that is what you do. If you do have one you need to explain why you have it and how it works.
Regardless on what you feel about content computer networks need to be protected against malware and viruses. Often the solution for content blocking and virus blocking are one and the same.

My 2cents.
Xxxxx

Hi all,
I have to agree with Sean on this one, as a teacher librarian it was more than frustrating working in a school that had a furious and diligent ‘net nanny’ to have to write to the web admin people to unblock sites that were not only not harmful to our youth - but were essential to their learning. it would amount to at least 10 a day.  I found it quite frustrating when looking for ‘young adult fiction’, that even this inocuose term was blocked from finding content - I would assume because it had the word ‘adult’ in it - so is this word (adult) to be now removed from the english language because it now has another meaning that may lead to the downfall of young peoples minds?

If students are interested in the bad stuff they will do it anyway - whether it is on the net or otherwise. Most will not seek it out, and some may stumble across it in their travels. Children need to be educated about their response and appropriateness. It is all part of being information literate and discriminate in this big bad world of ours.

Xxxxxx
Currently PT TL at XXXX

Great discussion one and all. I thought it best to remove names and references to protect the teachers here.

Paul 

Filed under: Education in Hong Kong