Censorship of internet

[Mr_M_Cox]

Hi all!

 

Does anyone know of some software that can block explicit or offensive language, images etc from a website such as google images whilst still allowing full access to the rest of the site.

 

i am not sure if this is even possable as it would require quite an advanced bit of software.

 

any info would be great

 

cheers

[Geoff]

I use Linux + Squid + Dansguardian to do this here. It does a reasonable job of blocking content on Google images as it looks at where the links go and bases it's content filtering on those pages.

[Mr_M_Cox]

can it be done without using linux, i have no experiance of using it.

[Geoff]

I know of no Windows based systems that are as effective. However, you can buy Smoothwall, a preconfigured system with a pointy clicky web interface. If you attract the attention of 'tom_newton' on these forums he'll give you more info. Also I think some of the regulars use Smoothwall, so can probably give you some more info too.

[gwendes]

I use a small standalone application called B Gone which looks at Internet Explorer's title bar and closes the browser if it finds anything which matches it's keyword list.

 

Very effective. Why do you want the kids to be able to look at the rest of the site if it contains offensive language? It's unlikely to be lesson related, isn't it?

[tom_newton]

Zzz..szzzz [wakes up]

 

Ah.. who.. me.. what? Yes.. well... I'm sure we can help you out - our solution is completely web-interface. All our techies are based in southamton as well, so not far away

 

We can block individual images on google image searches, and enforce the use of safesearch, amongst other things. Drop me a line and i'll put you in touch with the relevant people.

[Geoff]

Very effective. Why do you want the kids to be able to look at the rest of the site if it contains offensive language? It's unlikely to be lesson related, isn't it?

 

So you block Wikipedia then?

[gwendes]

Very effective. Why do you want the kids to be able to look at the rest of the site if it contains offensive language? It's unlikely to be lesson related, isn't it?

 

So you block Wikipedia then?

 

I don't block it but I currently don't have the ability to block by content. Haven't had a problem with wikipedia here so didn't occur...

 

Is that a widespread problem site?

[richard.thomas]

Currently i'm using IPCop with URLFilter- It's not blocking by content, but it does allow you to add problem sites. Our broadband provider has a content filter- However it's quite dire- allows so many proxy avoidance sites past

[tom_newton]

richard: I would venture to suggest that your broadband provider has a URL filter marketed as a content filter; a sheep in wolf's clothing, if you will

[SpuffMonkey]

I use a small standalone application called B Gone which looks at Internet Explorer's title bar and closes the browser if it finds anything which matches it's keyword list.

 

Very effective. Why do you want the kids to be able to look at the rest of the site if it contains offensive language? It's unlikely to be lesson related, isn't it?

 

We used something similar (TerminatorX) - very cost effective - until the kids realised that they could get out using the Excel Web Query screen - then it didn't work anymore as the title bar showed "Excel" - we moved to Smoothwall - and its doing a pretty good job - it was a bit tricky to set up initially - bit its pretty easy to keep on top of.

[tom_newton]

@Spuff: FWIW, we're working on making the initial config a boatload easier... so would be great to get feedback from folks post SchoolGuardian7... (which is out at BETT). This includes having some sensible defaults

[laserblazer]

A specific problem we have is kids are researching Queen Victoria and do a google image search on Prince Albert. The results are quite amusing and normally lead to a cross-curriculum discussion. Would something like SmoothWall help in these instances?

[Geoff]

Yes it would.

[tom_newton]

Great! Thats a fantastic example of a double-meaning search term

 

Just tested it here - no pictures of painful piercings, but actually remarkably few of the prince consort either (most seem to be albert of monaco, or pubs... *shrug*)

[antoeknee]

I've blocked as may image sites as I've found or know about (a continuing process) and allow access to one thats already filtered and you can't change the search criteria.

 

http://www.ditto.com

 

Have tried a few different searchs with this and never really found anything thats too risky (though its likely there will be something).

 

Prince Albert didn't yield anything risky, unlike Google image search with safe turned off!!

 

Google image search is a real pain as there are many site variations in the form images.google.xx where xx is a country code. We had to block these as students found that just typing first names (particularly female) would generate a lot of 'interesting' images.

 

Our authority also subscribes to Websense that blocks lots (though not all) of iffy sites.

[mrcrazy04]

if you can modify the URLs as they go through, add &safe=vss to the Google Image Searches, that's what E2BN do (using DansGuardian), and that seems to work really well at blocking things like that.

It's an undocumented feature of the image search, and has resulted in Google being enforced as the only image search allowed.

[tom_newton]

mrcrazy: you can actually do it with other image search engines as well.

 

In addittion to FSS we also examine the URL for blocked domains & URLs, so if the thumbnail is generated from a blocked site, it won't be shown.