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Proxy Sites Offer Secret Passage to Myspace
JafSquared writes "As sites like MySpace.com gain popularity in young adults, schools all over are finding that taking measures to keep kids blocked out of these websites is becoming increasingly difficult. As this hype continues, proxy servers such as "Box of Prox" are springing up like wildfire. While system admins furiously work to diminish the strain placed on their school's local networks from sites like MySpace, these proxy sites are enabling easy access to restricted areas. However, schools aren't the only places that are feeling the heat. Proxies have also been becoming a bit of a complication in the workplace. To the more advanced user, the proxy server can become a tool for malicious intent as this article, delivering an anecdote with the termination of an employee, so poignantly details."
Wow, Slashdot sure is on the CUTTING EDGE of TECHNOLOGY NEWS!
I'm just waiting for more fallacious appeals to emotion in the fight against kids talking to one another.
Do politicians even consider how ridiculous their arguments are? Why, ghettos have become a haven for drug dealers, prostitutes, and other nerdowells! Do we ban ghettos? No, I believe parents simply teach their kids about the dangers of going there, and before they're old enough to understand that, the parents simply don't allow them to go there.
It's sad how human ignorance comes back with a vengeance with the emergence of any new technology or tool, without fail.
But the moment, you introduce blockades to access to a "cool" thing like myspace or facebook, these talents become valuable in terms of utilization. More kids learn these, use these and try to out-do the other in terms of l33tness. If there aren't the artificial boundaries drawn by the authorities, these skills would have never been learnt, developed and hopefully put to good use in the future.
Whatever they block these with, they just raise the bar for the kids. Clever, curious and with the power of the rest of the internet behind them ... there's nothing that's totally blocked off. Probably threats to those who break the security and offer real world punishments maybe, but blocking it all is impractical. Of course, then there are those who prefer forbidden fruit to the ones in the fridge, for the momentary thrill of breaking some rules.
I remember breaking the proxy at a college where I was giving a talk. All I did was ssh -D 8080 into my box and bypassed the "security" of the campus network. But I did that by unplugging the monitor cable, running ssh and plugging the monitor back on in under 2 minutes.And lo, meebo.com suddenly worked. The kids thought I was some great genius or something. THat kind of ego-rush to a 17 year old teenager can drive them to do far more than just break firewalls to get kudos from their peers.
These kind of restrictions just favour the kids who learn to use the system, instead of just fighting it on the streets like the average politico.Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Half of what I learned in high school, actually probably 2/3-3/4 of it, I learned online at school or on my own time. A lot of the stuff that I read was at one point or another restricted, like a lot of libertarian stuff (including the party site) was restricted because it advocated drug use.
That's how the pea-brained morons that make most filtering software think. Yet a friend of mine would pull up porn sites like pink.com (back in the day) and laugh about it.
I have been out of college for 6 months and so am young enough to remember high school life. It was a waste of my time. I plan to homeschool my kids because they shouldn't have to "fight the system" to get anything interesting out of it.
What does the internet have to do with ADHD? Ohhhh... That's right. Anything we don't like kids doing must cause ADHD.