DailyTech - Rhode Island Schools Say No to MySpace

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Internet Rhode Island Schools Say No to MySpace
Brandon Hill (Blog) - March 1, 2006 1:22 PM

16 comment(s) - last by Andrevas.. on Mar 2 at 3:00 AM

80% of public schools in Rhode Island request for MySpace be blocked from its computers

We posted a story early last week that revealed MySpace's plans to expand into mobile phones so that users can stay connected just about anywhere they go. Some public schools in Rhode Island are requesting that filters be put in place to ban access to the site to protect their students.

Considering that students shouldn't be using public school computers to access sites like MySpace in the first place, it's interesting that the Rhode Island Network for Educational Technology hadn't put in a filter earlier. But a little digging reveals why the issue is now becoming prominent for the school system:

A blizzard of news headlines in national media have raised alarm with parents and school authorities -- from "Man arrested in MySpace.com teen-sex case" to "Sex predators are stalking MySpace; is your teenager a target?" and "Space Invaders."

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zzz

By baddog121390 on 3/1/2006 1:39:36 PM , Rating: 4

oh no the poor emos cant write suicide notes during class

Haha

By Exodus220 on 3/1/2006 2:05:53 PM , Rating: 5

That is funny that you would point out those poor emo kids because that is just what my little brother is and he uses MySpace. Please ban that crap at schools, if they want to waste their time then don't let them do it on government funds...I don't pay for kids to play at school (actually I pay so little taxes that it doesn't really contribute much).

Parent

RE: zzz

By NerV04 on 3/1/2006 8:31:16 PM , Rating: 2

lol yea myspace is the official emo hangout
gotta love how many do go through with their idiotic notes.(not many)
Anyways my high school banned that site for like a year and its funny the reaction i get when i tell the kids they cant go to it :)

Parent

I agree

By igloo15 on 3/1/2006 1:40:36 PM , Rating: 2

Why would a student be looking at MySpace at school anyways obviously they are not doing school work or studying if they are at myspace. I agree block the site that would make students get back to work. It wasn't so long ago that I was a student in a school computer lab looking up tech news at anandtech when I was suppose to be researching for a paper damn they should of blocked anandtech maybe I would of gotten better grades. ;)

RE: I agree

By hyperbolicparody on 3/1/2006 2:48:16 PM , Rating: 2

heh....
The only thing I did in any of my computer-based courses in highschool was read slashdot. Of course, back then my school ran off of 3 56K modems myself and a friend rigged up (back then the Philly school district didn't see the need for giving schools internet access, and the school's network and webpage were student-run....we even issued non-expiring e-mail addresses to anyone who wanted it =P).

Parent

Speaking of blocked stuff...

By drinkmorejava on 3/1/2006 9:56:37 PM , Rating: 2

I just found out today that my school blocks subdomains named "bug" ie bug.randomdeviance.com. All other subdomains are fine, but nooooo, they had to block the one domain on my site I wanted to go to. Interestingly, I've never been there before at school, so what on earth in the past could have provoked them to do that.

And they also blocked myspace a week ago

RE: Speaking of blocked stuff...

By Andrevas on 3/2/2006 3:00:49 AM , Rating: 2

haha, really sucks doesn't it? another instance, my district's new version of filtering software blocks sites that contain the word rack claiming they contain pornographic material. this includes tirerack.com

so I cannot browse Tire Rack from my morning auto class because "it contains pornographic material" :rolleyes:

but then again a picture of Advan A048s is pretty much automotive porn to me...=P

Parent

News?

By IsDanReally on 3/1/2006 1:51:37 PM , Rating: 3

At my work, a school, this is what visiting myspace has yield for at least a year...so is the news that Rhode Island is too cheap to use decent filtering?

Your organization's Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.

Reason:
The Websense category "Tasteless" is filtered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

URL:
http://myspace.com/

but

By sprockkets on 3/1/2006 2:51:14 PM , Rating: 1

MySpace is really for college students, right?

Or I guess it could be for more than that, but seriously, it is not as if you didn't think that the person on the other end could be LYING?

RE: but

By spwrozek on 3/1/2006 5:53:40 PM , Rating: 2

I would say myspace is basically a bunch of 14-18 year olds.

Facebook, which also sucks, is for college students. Although I think there is a high school version of it now.

Parent

Uhhh..

By Cygni on 3/1/2006 2:27:59 PM , Rating: 2

Schools have been using filtering softwear for the last 8 years... blocking "www.myspace.com" is as easy as typing in the admin password and clicking 'Block'.

they are finally now thinking about blocking Myspace?

By Andrevas on 3/1/2006 3:14:24 PM , Rating: 2

even though I regularly use Myspace, it strikes me funny how RI now wants to block the site from K-12 campus networks. My school district has been blocking Myspace for at least 2 years that I can think of (I'm a high school senior).