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Teen Hacks $84 Million Porn Filter in 30 Minutes
An anonymous reader writes "Tom Wood, a Year 10 Australian student has cracked the federal government's $84-million Internet porn filter in just 30 minutes. He can deactivate the filter in several clicks in such a way that the software's icon is not deleted which will make his parents believe the filter is still working. Tom says it is a matter of time before some computer-savvy kid puts the bypass on the Internet for others to use."
Give me half that and I'll re-do their filter so some 15 year old can't get around it....
Seriously, if you're going to spend that amount of money, you'd be farther ahead putting in a router that the government controls that can be continually updated. You also get cross-platform compatibility as a bonus!
What, me worry?
icon is not deleted which will make his parents believe the filter is still working
Isn't this what's important to parents? They only need to feel good, other technical details are useless.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
When are people going to accept that teenagers are sexual beings too.
i a#Secondary
According to wikipedia he should be around the age of 15/16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Austral
When I was 15 I remember becoming sexually active with girls and having "needs"
No filter can stop teens from getting off, no matter how many millions of dollars you throw at it.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
I've never heard of a more appropriately-named government project. $84M for a continually-updated filter that a kid (sounds like a smart kid, but a kid nonetheless) can break in less than an hour.
Why can't America's politicians up and admit to their schemes, too? Imagine it: the PATRIOT Scheme, the Communications Decency Scheme, and so on.
That's probably the best idea. Don't try to filter stuff, because you're either not filter everything, or filter too much. Just either put your computer in a room where you would be likely to walk by at any time, or put in some kind of proxy machine so that you can monitor what's going on. Even if they use HTTPs, you can see what IPs they are connecting to. This can help determine what they are looking at. Also, once they start looking for it, don't assume the internet is the only place they will find it. We all got a hold of it somehow when we were kids without the internet, and we all turned out pretty normal (by we, I mean just about everybody in society). For the most part, I'd just put the computer in a well travelled room. All this proxy/filter/nanny stuff is too much, and just shows a lot of distrust in your children, and probably won't stop them from seeing porn anyway.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
You know ... what made me search for porn in my youth is exactly the fact that my parents were trying to teach me to stay away from it.
Hey, if they tell me to stay away it must be secretly gooooood....
I realize this is mostly a joke but actually, 99% of porn DVDs have no region coding and some have no CSS copy-protection either.
84 Million? That's twice Blizzard's developing budget for World of Warcraft... for a porn filter. Seriously?
It's the hedonistic pleasure part of porn that is the problem. Teach children to not engage in materialistic pleasures and they won't be so interested in porn.
That somebody might be happy... would be so bad for you, wouldn't it?
As Nietzsche says, Christianity makes the whole of life repulsive.
I for one, don't think pleasure is at all a bad thing. That meaningful relationships are much more pleasurable than porn means we really don't have to worry about it systematically, unlike your apothecary soul.
I do worry, no I pity those who live life in constant repression.
Just look at what you Christians cherish -- pity, guilt, sin -- not to mention guilt through inheritance, which no rational society anymore recognizes.
May Christianity be the last, dying Hellenistic Mystery Religion.
A teen need not seek out porn when he just has to find girls that will put out; and those are more common as women gain more social equality and freedom.
Some teens might be better with the porn than diseases or their own children. How about a study on the impact porn has on teen sex related problems?
Physically adulthood is sooner than our cultural adulthood (the mental threshold IS cultural) and therein lies the bulk of the problem. The whole issue is a cultural one which as a result has little fact or logical foundation and more to do with belief, dogma, tradition, peer pressure, etc... Religion and SIMILAR belief structures should be prevented from getting into government. Its a core reason for having a Republic as opposed to an actual Democracy; protect the minority from the majority.
Non-Disclaimer: I will not cave into judgmental self-centered people who think other people can't understand points of view that they do not agree with.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
A few years back I found my eldest son (12 at the time( was using the small dark hours to view various kinds of porn. Some was 'normal' but there were many sites that were et the more extreme end of human sexuality.
I set up a transparent proxy with Dansguardian. Do I think it's impossible for my kids to find porn (or other content I'm uncomfortable for my kids to see) ? No. But I do know that it's unlikely for them to stumble across it accidentally. If they set to work to find and view porn, they'll find a way around the filters.
I also took a few of the images C. had looked at, and by zooming and playing with palettes showed him the scars of self-mutilation, the scars from slashed wrists, the track marks, the rotting teeth and the sores. He now knows that many of the girls have pretty nasty problems, as well as nasty habits. He also can see that many of the girls are being exploited, and that porn denigrates humans, unlike art which glorifies the body or casts these girls onto the canvas of our own life to challenge our our nice safe prejudices.
I know if my kids view porn. They know that I know. I also know that they have at least a glimmering of some of the moral and social issues involved. Hopefully I've also provided some guidance about what constitutes 'normal' and what the difference is between sex as an act of love and sex as exploitation for purposes of ego stroking.
So my approach as a parent is (1) make it less likely that they'll find porn by accident (2) make sure they're game to talk to me about it (3) make sure they see woman as more than a set of orifices in a warm bundle (4) make sure they know that their dreams and urges are normal and (5) that they are the only ones who can decide whether they treat Human Beings with respect as Divine Creatures deserve.
I figure that if (however unlikely) I can make some headway on all these points, I'll have got some wins, and their chances of happy future relationships are (slightly?) improved. I think thats my job - the rest is up to them.
Non-fucked up understanding of sex + porn = normal person, masturbation, quick physical release
Repressed, fucked up understanding of sex + porn = probably fucked up person in terms of sexuality, hangups, fear, etc
Only one variable has been changed on the left side of the equation. Hint: it's not porn. Call your parents and thank them for putting you through that hellish period when you were 18. It's their fault.
BTW, I speak from experience; my wife had a similar Christian upbringing (if you tell me your parents aren't Born Again, I'll be very surprised), and it took her quite a while to work out most of her sex hangups. It still makes her feel weird/dirty sometimes, all because of her parents' inability/lack of maturity when it came to an uncomfortable topic: talking to your kids about sex.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
> since God knew that he had set up Adam and Eve for failure, he gave them a reproductive system? He knew that they would fall? What a fucking evil bastard.
Hell, just crack open a Bible to the Old Testament and read the Book of Job -- and I mean *really* read it. God bumps into Satan as both survey the earth. God boasts to Satan about how devoted a worshipper the man Job is. Satan points out that Job wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic to worship God if great misfortune befell the man. So God bets Satan that Job won't curse God to His face, even if Satan destroys Job's possessions, lays waste to his home, and slaughters his family.
Think about it: God allowed Satan to completely ruin a pious man's life -- including the killing of innocent family members -- *so that God could win a bet*.
No wonder they never covered this biblical story in Sunday School.
"All hands, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"