[luau] Filter the Web with SquidGuard

[MonMotha]

The problem becomes what should be censored and who should make that 
decision.  When you use a closed product, you often turn your network 
over to that product's blacklist (or even worse sometimes, a deny then 
allow method...).

For example, I think we all agree that Mr. Goatse should probably be 
blocked from 100% of the internet.

The problem is that sometimes people cross the line and start blocking 
things that aren't "just plain gross" or "completely unsuitable for the 
environment" (the environment often being a K-12 school).  Often, these 
filters will block things that are just "questionable".  For example, a 
student I know recently needed to look up information regarding the 
hallocaust.  Unfortunately the filter was blocking a bunch of these 
sites so that admin had to set her up on a system still on our old T-1 
(which will be gone in a few months) so that she could see this 
information.  The hallocaust has an entire class at this school, but 
when a student wants to use the internet to research it, she has to have 
special provisions made since the content is "questionable."

Should the Google cache be blocked?  There have been times that the only 
site that has the info I need has been taken down or is temorarily 
unavailable and the google cache has saved the day.  What about 
babelfish?  I think most people will agree that both of those services 
have more of a use for good than for bad.  However, the filters have to 
block them because they can be used to circumvent the filters.  A person 
will always be able to circumvent the filters if they want to bad 
enough, so the filters should just prevent a direct connection and warn 
the person that this content isn't allowed by the AUP (that's the real 
purpose of a filter, to enforce the AUP, not to censor people with no 
other backing).  This means that, yes, people could circumvent the 
fitlers using things like the google cache, babelfish, or the wayback 
machine, but they would also have access to the wonderful services that 
these provide.

Conclusion: I run some filtering on my home system to prevent things 
like accidental clicking of the goatse links in /. trolls as a service 
to myself, but only things which very obviously have NO value whatsoever 
(ad servers, goatse and the like, etc) are in my block list.

--MonMotha

Joe Linux wrote:
> To see why censorship is necessary on computers connected to the 
> Internet in schools and libraries  type in "www.whitehouse.gov" and then 
> "www.whitehouse.com"  This is an innocent mistake that a young student 
> can make and can be very distressing in a classroom situation.  This 
> actually happened when I was substituting in a school computer lab with 
> a second grade class.  The teacher had "www.whitehouse.gov" as a place 
> to visit on the Internet, and the second grader accidentally typed in 
> "www.whitehouse.com"
> 
> 
> Warren Togami wrote:
> 
>> We don't like censorship,
>>
> 
> 
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