Jayme Cilente

SLM 521

Summer 2006

Filtering

Prior to this elective, I had never heard of filtering. I found this elective to be not only full of a lot of great information, but also very interesting.

As a future teacher, I plan to keep a close watch on students and their usage, looking out for undesirable files or odd activity on the computer. It is also important to talk to students about any problems they encounter, such as accidentally coming across pornography or unwanted advertising. I also plan to make sure both students and parents are aware of the potential hazards on the Internet and encourage Internet safety both at school and home.

Pros

There are a lot of software products out there for filtering purposes. I discovered that the best filtering products are those that come with the option of blocking access to incoming information from the web, by e-mail or other methods of access, and of blocking outgoing information, thus preventing children from revealing personal information, trying to buy things with a credit card, or answering questionnaires.

Filtering can be divided into web filtering, the screening of websites or pages, and e-mail filtering, the screening of e-mail for spam or other objectionable content.

Internet filtering tools have a large range of customization options that include the ability to allow approved sites and block unapproved sites, the targeting of key words and/or phrases to trigger actions, the designation of whole categories of content to allow or block, the choice of whether inappropriate content should trigger a block, a warning message, a log entry, or other actions, and the capacity to make different configurations for different children.

Some internet service providers offer a variety of parental controls, including site blocking, limitation on receipt of e-mail, and restricted access to chat rooms, newsgroups, or other types of services.

It is important to know the proper setting of filters to be able to block from harmful information, but to still be able to access other information.

Cons

While filters can screen out a certain amount of information, it is advised other forms of protection be available as well, such as the installation of desktop and network antivirus software.

Purchasing and installing filtering software on a PC and changing the settings can be both very expensive and difficult.

The filtering software must be updated regularly because the Internet keeps on changing, with new sites appearing every day, which can be time consuming.

Filters vary in their effectiveness. Filters can be over-block, restrict access to useful websites, and under-block, failing to stop other pages that are harmful to children.

The ability to disable or get around blocking software can be major problem, especially with concerns to children. I was amazed at the amount of information provided on the website Peacefire.org.