Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve made a post. Sorry about that.
I recently had a conversation with some friends about internet filtering. It’s a terrible system that tempts parents, bosses, and more to restrict their underlings access to the internet - and it barely works. There are numerous reasons why I don’t like this system, and think that it poses a severe threat to the internet.
Filters are the Wrong Solution
There may be legitimate reasons for a parent to want their children to avoid certain websites on the internet. However, filters are the wrong way to do it. When a child leaves a filtered home as they come of age, they do not have any knowledge of the internet’s more dangerous places, and certain websites can be very tempting for a young man to visit - the same websites that can be more dangerous. They also don’t learn about some very important things they should know about the filtered content. A far better idea is to not block the content, and when the eventually find it, talk to them about it, explain the dangers, and use different means to keep them away. That way, when they inevitably come out from behind the filter, they are prepared.
Filters Are Ineffective
All filtering systems I’ve ever seen are not good at what they do. They take an impossible task of filtering different parts of a system larger than any person can possibly imagine. In my previous job, I was working under an internet filter, and every day I would be inhibited by it in my work. At my current job, I do not have a filter, and I work more efficiently and still get things done. My high school would filter all student internet, and there were constant complaints about not being able to get school work done around them.
Not only do filters filter out the wrong things, but they also don’t stop all of the right things. It is easy to go behind a filter and find plenty of websites that are worthy of being blocked. In addition to that, there are dozens of ways to get around filters. I can think of 8 ways, off the top of my head, to get around every filter I’ve ever been behind.
Filters Slow Down Computers
Upon starting to use a filter, you will notice an immediate increase in your computer’s local resource usage, or the network usage (depending on the type of filter). There is a lot more effort involved in filtering the internet than there is in accessing it. A simple explanation of how they work:
Without a filter, you can directly request information from a server.
With a filter (depending on the filter): You try to request information from the server. The filter interrupts you, and instead directs the request to it’s own private server. That server downloads the information you requested, and looks up information about what kind of filtering your software has enabled. Then it compares the information you’ve requested with an enormous blacklist of websites that fall into the kind of filters you have enabled. Then, it looks at the actual information, and attempts to get an idea of what kind of content it has. If it passes all of these tests, it’s finally sent back to you.
Filtering is Just Plain Wrong
Think about all the countries that filter their internet. Ever hear of the Great Firewall of China? Nearly all of the countries that filter their user’s internet are dictatorships, or have some other hostile form of government. If you’ve ever imposed a filter on someone, you haven’t really thought twice about it. But when you talk politics with your friends, you’ve probably expressed pity for the people who are restricted by their government. If you haven’t installed a filter - good for you, and you can see what my point is here.
Filtering internet is just a bad idea - it is morally wrong and it doesn’t work properly. It stops the people under the filter from effectively using the internet, and it can be circumvented with moderate effort (ask my parents - they’ve used about 6 different filters after I got around each one, and I can still get around #6 if I tried). When schools filter content, a lot of what gets filtered is games - but the kids who are off task should feel the repercussions when they see their report cards. There are many perfectly legitimate times when a student would want to play games after finishing their assigned work.
Don’t use them.