Thread: Internet Censorship Coming To A School Near You

...i'm for keeping kids from all sorts of sex type websites, but is that what this new order is about??? ...the last filtering system we used blocked such innocuous websites such as ajarn.com!!!



Govt to supply censorship software to schools SIRIKUL BUNNAG

The Education Ministry will install software on computers at 35,000 schools across the country to block access to lewd websites. Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn said ministry policy is to promote the creative and safe use of the internet in schools.



Under the policy, all secondary and primary schools with internet access must install software on their computers to block access to inappropriate websites.



Schools are required to include content regarding the constructive use of the internet in their curriculums to protect students from falling victim to lewd websites, said the minister.

The schools will be asked to hold activities or contests to encourage students to produce constructive media for computer and internet learning.



''Now rapes, murders and other crimes via the internet are rampant. The Education Ministry, as a major internet service provider for schools to get access to it, should have clear measures to protect children from online dangers. In the past, most schools mainly used the internet to search for information, create websites and send e-mail, but they failed to warn students against various forms of online dangers,'' said Mr Wijit.



Education permanent secretary Jaruayporn Thoranin cited a recent survey by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation which showed that there were around 8.4 million internet users in the country. Of the total users, around 50% were aged between 12 and 20.

Around 35,000 primary and secondary schools under the ministry have access to the internet, she said.



Government Information and Technology Services recently reported that many youngsters often used google.com, the most popular search engine, to get access to inappropriate websites several hundred thousand times a month. They searched for the words ''sex'' about 500,000 times a month, ''clandestine filming'' 400,000 times a month and camfrog 200,000 times a month. About 45% of young internet users visited pornographic websites.



Mrs Jaruayporn said over 1,000 schools have the Plawan Browser installed on their computers to block access to inappropriate websites. It is expected that all schools with internet access will have this software installed within one year.



The ministry has also opened another website at www.sema.go.th to promote creative and safe internet use, she said

Originally Posted by panhunger

They searched for the words ''sex'' about 500,000 times a month, ''clandestine filming'' 400,000 times a month and camfrog 200,000 times a month.

I'm assuming they enter this in Thai.....and just what the hell's a camfrog? Some kind of amphibian recording device?
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Um....it's a video chat software client...is this really corrupting the nations youth anymore than similar services?

http://www.camfrog.com/

camfrog.....monkeycam.....camtrunk.....watch you back

And wouldn't you know it, but the Plawan website is in thai

We have our own private internet connection in the office and 4 out of 5 of us use our own computers at work in any case so it shouldn't affect us.

Personally I wish they'd block access to the crappy flash game websites that the kids go crazy for any time you try and use the computers in a lesson!
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Originally Posted by LDMA

Um....it's a video chat software client...is this really corrupting the nations youth anymore than similar services?

http://www.camfrog.com/

Possibly, I seem to remember tootie saying she was a user .....

Ha...Def they did that at my Mrs' Uni....except what they did was ban any website which had the word game anywhere in the website URL or content.

This means that most ESL websites are blocked. The computer center is largely unsympathetic to the English department's complaints that they're being denied access to class planning resources.

I remember when my old company blocked emails based on keywords

You couldn't talk about Scunthorpe any more....

Don't worry everyone, I have just read that it is an open source application!
So, not being owned by any of the BIG IT companies, it won't ever get decent support.

More than likely someone who knows a bit about 'pooters here in Thailand, will hack it's code, or write some modded app for it that will bypass the filtering, therefore rendering its purpose invalid.

Either that or it will become so infected with malware/spyware, that it will make your 'pooter un-useable! Oh and it won't give you any form of protection against Phishing or websites that use nasty code to try and gain control/access to your 'pooter.

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT....

Being that the software they are forcing to be adopted WILL NOT be open source, I naturally come up with a few questions myself.

-- Who is paying for this exercise? How much is each school paying? Students paying?

-- Will the usual 30% cut go to the government officials?

-- Who gets to keep the ongoing revenue generated by the software?

-- Will this go the way of the 500 baht teacher licenses? Pay it and not get anything?

Originally Posted by panhunger

Thai Health Promotion Foundation which showed that there were around 8.4 million internet users in the country.

Given that internet use in this country is only about 10% (compared to 60% or 70% in most western countries) this would seem to be a tempest in a teapot.