"Ugh, I Can't Get Into Facebook.."

"I Know This Proxy Site..."

In class when we talked about internet filtering instantly my own memories of it came to mind. Freshmen year in high school I could remember Google-ing different proxy sites desperately trying to find a way to get into Facebook and gaming websites. I can recall these memories up until junior year of high school. After that I can’t recall having trouble trying to get into any site that I wanted while at school. I don’t know if my school didn’t have these internet filters up, or if they just stopped filtering out the sites that kids my age commonly used.

Since I had my own experiences with and without these pesky internet filters I have gotten a chance to see how it has affected me both ways. I know that these filters are used to keep bad material away from us, and I see the purpose there. School is the one place that kids are constantly with their peers. Peers that can easily influence someone to see or do something that they normally wouldn’t see or do at home. So I can understand why those things would need to be blocked while at school.

I don’t get though, why sites like Facebook or gaming sites are blocked. Honestly, I think I spent more time trying to break through the filter than I actually spent on the website after I cracked it. Being told you can’t do something just makes that something more desirable. I feel like, in this case, that what the filters are doing. They are making that content that more desirable to the people they are blocking it from.