Stiff Games-Why filters are bad and Games not Blocked by School
Games not Blocked by Schools |
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Why are so many sites blocked?The school seems to need to block as many websites as they can to try and keep the kids off of “bad websites.” First of all what is considered a “bad website?” And why do they seem to feel they need to block these websites? OK, I can understand blocking websites that are not age appropriate. From the schools eyes a bad website is anything that doesn’t involve you bettering your education. But what happens when you get your work done 10 minutes early and you have nothing to do. I mean, there are people that are just a little faster typist than the person sitting next to you. What are you to do? Work on other work? What if you don’t have any? What if you do have work, but it is in your locker? Teachers aren’t going to let you just go and get it. Should you go bug your classmates and distract them from getting done? No, if you are done with all your work, then you should be able play games. Just keep it to your self and don’t distract others. If the kids are getting on games while they are supposed to be working then that’s when you go up the punishment chart. The teachers can handle it, and if a kid is being disrupting to the class and not listening then of course you should send them to the office. By that I mean warning, detention, Friday Detention, suspension and so forth. Why should we start blocking as many sites as possible?
Do they think that they are smarter? Is this a contest? Well if so the students will always beat their elders. At home we are welcomed by the warm feeling of an Internet without a filter. This means we are available to virtually any information we would ever need. I truly believe that any one person could do any job or learn any job or learn how to do literally anything on the internet. No offense at all by the way. I’m just saying that the kids will always be smarter than the adults because there will always be new technology and there will always be a way to get around the school without them knowing. There are now hundreds of websites who aim directly at these kinds of kids who search for online games. Websites are made especially for this reason alone. They make these online game websites just so they target anyone in school and that’s how they can make money.
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Pros |
Cons |
Astaro |
Honestly don’t see any |
Not even in the top 10 results in product reviews |
Net Nanny Parental Controls |
Listed in 1 in top 10 |
Doesn’t include chats |
Safe Eyes |
Listed in 2 of top 10 |
No remote management |
CYBERsitter |
Listed 3 in top 10 |
No remote management or Reporting |
Well some of you might be wondering what Astaro is. Astaro is a filtering program that is used at some schools. The kids of schools might not be worried or really quite mad yet, but the school is going to have to deal with this problem sooner or later. If the schools decide to keep waiting until it becomes an issue, then you can imagine what is going to happen. I do understand that this would require them to install a whole another program and take off the old one, but it has to be done. Unless they plan to get new computers within a couple years then they need to either get a new program or fix the old one. Astaro is so ridiculous because of its faulty try to block “bad websites.” When half the time, it ends up blocking 25% of websites that have valuable information that could really help the students.
Do they think they have blocked all the “bad websites?”
First of all, I want to say that they are not even close to blocking all the websites that would be considered “bad websites.” There are thousands of websites that were established especially for this reason. They target these kinds of groups because they know that they have nothing else to go to. Eventually what is going to happen is there is going to be a database of websites that are considered good and bad websites. Then the adults will be able to select what age group you want to block content from and it will give you an endless list of websites that they believe should and should not be blocked.
Lastly, I want to say that I am not asking for a challenge. I am not asking for you guys to unblock all the websites. All I am asking for is a revision in our system. The way the school’s filter is set up is ridiculous. If the website contains one keyword that the filter does not like, then the website gets blocked.