Content Filtering Guidelines

Content Filtering Guiding Principles

Prairie South SchoolDivision No. 210

15 Thatcher Drive East Phone: (306) 694-1200 Fax: (306) 694-4955
Moose Jaw, SK S6J 1L8 Outside the Moose Jaw Area: 1-877-434-1200

www.prairiesouth.ca

Content Filtering Guiding Principles
Teachers are recognized as the best filter of materials and resources for their students. Teachers should whenever possible preview and direct students to appropriate materials. Random searching using search tools such as Google or Yahoo may not provide the desired results. Teachers are encouraged to utilize and model effective research skills with their students.
Teachers need to be proactive in teaching students about appropriate use, privacy and potential dangerous activity on the internet. This should include:

Specific lessons on safety and privacy
Continued discussion throughout the year
Close monitoring of student activity through physical presence and random access of internet histories

Content Filtering software is not intended to teach students about appropriate use of the internet nor should it be seen as an exclusive monitoring system. The accessing of inappropriate materials will occur. A teacher's role is to limit this and also provide students with skills and information to make good decisions.
When considering sites that are distractions or “off task” activities as opposed to inappropriate, teachers should be prepared to deal with this as they would any other off task behaviour.

How it works

Our current method of filtering uses a service called DansGuardian.

It filters the actual content of pages based on many methods including phrase matching, PICS filtering and URL filtering. It does not purely filter based on a banned list of sites like lesser totally commercial filters.

DansGuardian is designed to be completely flexible and allows you to tailor the filtering to your exact needs. It can be as draconian or as unobstructive as you want. The default settings are geared towards what a primary school might want but DansGuardian puts you in control of what you want to block.

Our current method of filtering uses a purchased “blacklist” of sites. It is updated regularly to filter out inappropriate websites. Inappropriate may be defined as and include things such as:

Pornography
Hatred
Racism
Violence
Gambling
virus/spyware infected sites
phishing sites
parked domains filled with ads

Student activity is also logged and can be monitored and examined if necessary.
Sites are blocked when:

they contain information that is completely and exclusively inappropriate for classroom use
They are using an unacceptable amount of bandwidth (in this case, the may be blocked temporarily)

If a teacher or student believes a site to be incorrectly blocked, a ticket should be sent to the IT department. Please provide some explanation as to what you know about the website in question. If it is an obvious misinterpretation by the software, it will be unblocked. Any question regarding its use, will be sent back to the teacher and principal to discuss.

The following are supporting documents

Social Networking
http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com/Social+Networking+Acceptable+Use

Further Discussion

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/01/spies-like-us.html

Internet Filtering Guidelines

School District of Superior – Department of Information Technology – Revised May 23, 2007

Purpose

This procedure outlines the process that is used to block or unblock Internet sites. The filtering review process is the primary method of controlling filtering in the District.

Filtering Review Process

The School District of Superior has purchased filtering software for the purpose of filtering the contents of the Internet. The solution that the vendor offers may not fit the educational need for sites they have blocked that may need to be unblocked or vice versa. To assess content that might need to be unblocked or blocked the district will use a filter review process to refine what the vendor has blocked or unblocked. The filtering review group is made up of volunteers (teachers, administrators, support staff). This group will be referred to as the Filter Group.

Because Filter Group members could be asked to view sites with potential adult material, explicit speech, indecent graphics, extremely violent, or gory material, they will not hold the School District of Superior liable. Only volunteers will make up the Filter Group.

General Guidelines

The filter is not a replacement for teacher supervision. Any block/unblock requests solely justified with “making our lives easier” in terms of supervision will be dismissed.
Categorical filtering is intended to cover the categories deemed “of no legitimate educational value” or “a waste of system resources”.
We prefer to block fewer websites and teach students to be responsible users of the Internet than to “overblock” websites and work backwards.

Process for Getting a Website Unblocked by Filter

Teacher emails the Director of Information Technology with the URL for the website in question.
Director of Information Technology unblocks the website for the “Filter Group” only and emails the URL to the “Filter Group”.
Members of “Filter Group” have 5 school days to visit the website and decide whether to “Block or Unblock”. Recommendation is emailed to the Director of Information Technology. Majority vote recommendation goes to the Director of Information Technology.
If the Director of Information Technology agrees with the group recommendation, the site is unblocked from the filter.
If the Director of Information Technology disagrees with the group recommendation, the matter if forwarded to the Superintendent of Schools for a final decision.

Process for Getting a Website Blocked by Filter

Teacher emails the Director of Information Technology with the URL of the website in question.
Director of Information Technology makes a decision to block or leave unblocked by the filter immediately and emails the URL to the “Filter Group”.
Members of “Filter Group” have 5 school days to visit the website and decide whether to “Block or Unblock”. Recommendation is emailed to the Director of Information Technology. Majority vote recommendation goes to the Director of Information Technology.
If the Director of Information Technology agrees with the group recommendation, the site is blocked from the filter.
If the Director of Information Technology disagrees with the group recommendation, the matter if forwarded to the Superintendent of Schools for a final decision.

Categorical Blocking

There are 30 categories defined within the filtering software (see below). The filtering software gives us options of unblocked, coached, and blocked categories. Categorical “blocked vs. unblocked” status is initially assigned based on whether the category is

deemed of no legitimate educational value
a waste of system resources

The “coached” option is assigned to categories that have legitimate educational value, yet have the potential to cross over to topics of no legitimate educational value. The technology works by redirecting a request for a website in this category to an informational page. This page warns the user that they are accessing a website that will potentially violate our district policy for the acceptable use of Internet resources. It will ask that students please inform their teacher/librarian of their intentions before proceeding.

Where We Want to Be
Stuff that Should Be Filtered		Stuff that Should Not Be Filtered
Let the Filter Block It	Coached (Unblocked)	Let it Be Unblocked

Category	Rationale for Decision
Alcohol (al) This category includes URLs that sell, promote, or advocate the use of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, and hard liquors.	BLOCKED: There is no educational value in the majority of websites covered in this category.
Consumer Information (cm) This category includes URLs that provide information that enhances consumer awareness about such topics as comparing products and businesses, regional information, transportation schedules, maps, driving directions, weather, and the availability of government services such as fire and police departments.	UNBLOCKED: While students using email may be a nuisance, the filter is not meant to replace proper supervision. There are many legitimate purposes for both students and staff to use a Webmail based program.
Drugs (dr) Sites in this category provide information on the purchase, manufacture, and use of illegal or recreational drugs. This includes displaying, selling, or detailing the use of drug paraphernalia, as well as tips on legal highs, such as glue sniffing, the misuse of prescription drugs, or the abuse of other legal substances.	UNBLOCKED/COACHED: On one hand, the activities described in this category are largely illegal. On the other hand, the category references topics that are high interest in terms of research for students. Students/staff accessing a site within this category would receive a message stating they were crossing into an area that may be in violation of the district policy for the acceptable use of Internet resources.

Categorical Filtering

The SmartFilter product we use begins with the following categories. Those categories marked in red (dark) are categorically blocked.

	Blocked By Filter
	“Coached” Websites - Unblocked
	Unblocked

	Alcohol (al) This category includes URLs that sell, promote, or advocate the use of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, and hard liquors.
	Anonymizers (an) This category includes URLs that enable anonymous Web browsing through an intermediary to prevent unauthorized parties from gathering personal information, but also allow users access to any Web page and bypass blocking software. Pages that provide free proxy IP addresses are also included in this category.
	Art/Culture/Heritage (ac) Web sites in this category contain virtual art galleries, artist sites (including sculpture and photography), and other cultural topics, such as museums, ethnic customs and country customs.
	Auction (eb) This category includes URLs that offer access to online auctions. Online auctions are rarely monitored; therefore these sites may expose users to material that would otherwise be filtered under categories such as Pornography, Weapons, Nudity, or Violence.
	Business (bu) This category includes URLs that provide information, services, or products that help other businesses plan, manage, and market their enterprises. Also included are pyramid schemes and multilevel marketing ventures. This category may also be used as an exception to allow access to sites that have a business focus, but may belong to other categories such as Shopping/Merchandizing, Auction, Travel, etc.
	Chat (ch) This category includes sites that provide social posting and receiving of real-time messages. This includes public or private chat rooms and chat software downloads such as IRC that allow twoway messaging.
	Computing/Internet (ci) This category includes URLs that provide businesses and individuals with reviews, information, and buyer’s guides for computers, and computer parts and accessories, and software, Web Hosting sites, Domain Names for Sale sites/Registrars, computer and Internet periodicals and information, tutorials, clipart, fonts, and animated gif pages.
	Consumer Information (cm) This category includes URLs that provide information that enhances consumer awareness about such topics as comparing products and businesses, regional information, transportation schedules, maps, driving directions, weather, and the availability of government services such as fire and police departments.
	Criminal Skills (cs) This category includes URLs that either provide instructions for or identify methods to promote, encourage, or provide the skills to commit illegal or criminal activities. These include bomb-making, phreaking (breaching phone security or phone service theft), consumer scams and fraud, terrorism, evading law enforcement, stalking, lock picking, passing urine tests and selling pirated material, commercial software, music, videos, or fake IDs.
	Dating/Social (mm) This category includes URLs that focus on social interaction; including online dating, friendship, school reunions, pen-pals, escort services, introductions to potential foreign spouses, etc. Many of these sites host member profiles and facilitate social interaction among the members.
	Drugs (dr) Sites in this category provide information on the purchase, manufacture, and use of illegal or recreational drugs. This includes displaying, selling, or detailing the use of drug paraphernalia, as well as tips on legal highs, such as glue sniffing, the misuse of prescription drugs, or the abuse of other legal substances.
	Education/Reference (er) This category includes Web pages devoted to academic subject matter such as math, history, science, literature, and general reference sites like online dictionaries and atlases. Also included are home pages of colleges, universities, and K-12 schools. This category may also be used as an exception to allow access to sites that may belong to another category, such as Sexual Materials, Nudity, or Violence, but relate to an educational topic such as classic literature, history, art, or sex education.
	Entertainment/Recreation/Hobbies (et) The entertainment category includes URLs devoted to movies, television, music, hobbies, horoscopes, Online greeting cards, or amusement parks.
	Extreme (ex) This category is used in conjunction with Gruesome Content, Hate Speech, Politics/Opinion, Pornography, Violence, or Game/Cartoon Violence to identify URLs that are at the outer limits of these categories, being gory, perverse, or horrific in nature. An example is child pornography, which would have both the Pornography and Extreme categorization.
	Finance (fi) Sites in this category include information about business-related or personal banking, money management, such as 401 Ks, credit unions, mutual funds, as well as online financial publications.
	Forum/Bulletin Boards (mb) This category includes URLs that include forums that permit messages to be posted and read immediately. This excludes message forums with a business or technical support focus (see Technical/Business Forums (tf)).
	Gambling (gb) This category includes sites that allow users to wager or place bets online or provide gambling software that allows online betting i.e. casino games, betting pools, sports betting etc.
	Games (gm) This category includes URLs that offer online games and related information such as cheats, codes, demos, and emulators. The Games category also includes online contests or role-playing games, in addition to URLs that focus on traditional board games, reviews, and sites that promote game manufacturers. Fantasy virtual sport leagues may also be included in the Gambling category, in combination with the Games and Sports categories.
	General News (nw) The general news category applies to most online news and mainstream publications, such as business, trade, and medical journals, as well as high school and university newspapers. It also includes headline-news sites, newswire services, and proprietary news services.
	Government/Military (gv) This category includes URLs with information from world-wide governmental institutions, and armed forces Home pages
	Gruesome Content(tg) This category includes URLs with content such as tasteless humor, excretory functions (vomiting, urinating, or defecating), graphic medical or accident scene photos (containing blood or wounds), and some extreme forms of body modification (cutting, branding, or genital piercing).
	Hacking (hk) This category includes URLs that distribute information and hacking tools (root kits, kiddy scripts, etc.) that help individuals gain unauthorized access to computer systems.
	Hate Speech (hs) This category is dedicated to any sort of information that would encourage the oppression of a specific group of individuals. This includes promoting, explicitly or implicitly, an agenda against groups based on race, religion, nationality, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.
	Health (hl) This category contains URLs with topics designed to improve an individual's well-being. Sites may provide information on new medications, alternative medicine, medically related sex or drug therapies, fitness, mental health, parenting, or support groups. This category may also be used as an exception to allow access to sites that have a medical focus but may belong to another category such as Nudity, Sexual Materials, Gruesome Content, etc.
	Humor (hm) The humor category includes URLs that intend to be comical or funny. These sites include general jokes, comic pages, and comedy clubs.
	Instant Messaging (im) URLs in this category provide access and/or software that allow people to communicate in "real time" over the Internet. The software often allows file transfer and tracking of when other people log on and off of the Internet.
	Internet Radio/TV (ir) URLs in this category provide software and/or access to continuous broadcasting of radio and TV programming.
	Job Search (js) This category includes URLs related to a job search. It encompasses sites concerned with resume writing, interviewing, changing careers, classified advertising, and large job databases. It also includes corporate Web pages listing job openings.
	Malicious Sites (ms) Sites in this category deploy code that has been designed specifically to hijack your computer's settings or activity.
	Media Download (mp) This category includes URLs that provide files to download such as MP3s, videos, movie collections, and others.
	Mobile Phone (mo) This category includes URLs that provide software or utilities for mobile phones that can downloaded from Websites and delivered to mobile phones. Examples include Ringtones, Logos/skins, games, screen-savers, text-based tunes, iMODE, and software for SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Message Service), and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).
	Non-Profit Organizations/Advocacy Groups (np) This category includes URLs for non-profit and advocacy groups. These groups are generally incorporated organizations that exist for educational or charitable reasons. They fulfill a stated mission, benefiting the larger community. Shareholders or trustees do not benefit financially.
	Nudity (nd) This category includes URLs that have non-pornographic images of the bare human body. Classic sculpture and paintings, artistic nude photographs, some naturism pictures, and detailed medical illustrations are included in the Nudity category.
	P2P/File Sharing (pn) Soon available on all platforms* This category includes the exchange of files between computers and users for business or personal use. An example of P2P use is downloadable, shared music. P2P clients allow users to search for and exchange files from a peer-user network. They often include SpyWare or real-time chat capabilities. P2P may offer bandwidth usage risks, or allow users to compromise network security by distributing proprietary or sensitive data outside a secured network.
	Personal Network Storage (ns) This category includes sites that allow users to upload folders and files to an online network server. Personal network storage is a valuable service allowing users to backup, share, edit, or retrieve files or folders from any Web browser. They do offer risks, such as proprietary or sensitive data can be uploaded outside a secured network, or offensive and illegal content may be stored and distributed.
	Personal Pages (pp) This category includes personal home pages that share a common domain such as those hosted by ISPs, University/Education servers, Free Web Page hosts, etc. Blogging sites are also included. Personal home pages present a risk to viewers because content ranges from harmless to offensive, yet these pages are not highly trafficked, making them difficult to categorize and provide coverage for each personal page. Phishing (ph) Soon available on all platforms* This category includes sites that typically arrive in hoax e-mail established only to steal users' account information. These sites falsely represent themselves as legitimate company Web sites in order to deceive and obtain user account information that can be used to perpetrate fraud or theft.
	Politics/Opinion (po) This category includes URLs covering political parties, individuals in political life, and opinion on various topics.
	Pornography (sx) This category includes URLs that contain materials that are intended to be sexually arousing or erotic. This includes fetish pages, animation, cartoons, stories, and child pornography.
	Portals Sites (ps) This category includes URLs that serve as a starting point for users when they get connected to the Web. These sites serve as major gateways or directories to content on the Web.
	Profanity (pr) This category includes URLs that contain crude, vulgar, or obscene language or gestures.
	Provocative Attire (pa) This category includes URLs with pictures that include alluring or revealing attire, lingerie and swimsuits, or supermodel photo collections but do not involve nudity.
	Religion and Ideology (ri) Sites in this category have to do with religious topics and beliefs in human spirituality.
	Remote Access (ra) Sites in this category provide information about gaining remote access to a program, online service or an entire computer system. While often used legitimately by people who want to use their computer from a remote location, it also creates a potential security risk. Backdoor access is often written by the original programmer.
	Resource sharing (rs) URLs in this category provide software that allows users to share computer resources; this can be on company or international basis. Well-known examples are the SETI program and the Human Genome Project, which use the computer downtime of thousands of volunteers to analyze data.
	School Cheating Information (sc) This category includes URLs that promote plagiarism or cheating by providing term papers, written essays, or exam answers.
	Search Engines (se) This category includes URLs that offer unfiltered, unrestricted, unverified, search engine results.
	Sexual Materials (sm) This category includes sites with sexual innuendo, humor, ecommerce, educational or medical descriptions or depictions of sexual acts, specifically those without the intent to arouse. Sites which contain material intended to arouse, fall under the Pornography category.
	Shareware/Freeware (sw) Sites in this category provide repositories of download copies of shareware and freeware. Shareware is distributed on the basis of an honor system. Most shareware is delivered free of charge, but the author usually requests that you pay a small fee if you like the program and use it regularly. Freeware is software that is available without any cost.
	Shopping/Merchandizing (os) This category may be used to enhance productivity by keeping employees from purchasing products and services online. This includes URLs that specifically sell products or services online. Many Online Shopping sites pose a risk to users by offering access to items that would normally be filtered under other categories such as Pornography, Weapons, Nudity, or Violence.
	Sports (sp) This category includes URLs related to sports, such as: sports teams, sport discussions, and sports scores. Fantasy football leagues may also be included in this category, sometimes in combination with the Gambling category.
	Spyware (sy) This category includes URLs that download software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection, without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. This may be considered a violation of privacy and may have bandwidth and security implications. These practices are not part of the normal practice of software registration. This category is mainly populated using expert 3rd party information.
	Stock Trading (in) This category is designed to stop users from trading stock at work or accessing tickertape information. It should not prevent people from doing business research on the web.
	Streaming Media (st) This category includes URLs that provide streaming media, or contain software plugins that allow the displaying of audio and visual data before the entire file has been transmitted. Excess data is saved in a buffer.
	Tobacco (tb) This category includes URLs that sell, promote, or advocate the use of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, and pipe and chewing tobacco.
	Travel (tr) This category includes airline Web sites, travel-booking agencies, and other travel-related information, such as tourist highlights and special events in various cities.
	Usenet news (na) The Usenet News category includes URLs that provide Web access to Usenet news groups and archives of files uploaded to newsgroups.
	Violence (vi) The violence category includes real or lifelike images or text that portray, describe, or advocate physical assaults against humans, animals, or institutions (for example: depictions of war, suicide, mutilation, dismemberment). Sites showing the outer end of this spectrum, such as depictions of torture, gore, or horrific death, are also rated as Extreme.
	Visual Search Engine (vs) This category includes URLs that provide image-specific search results such as thumbnail pictures.
	Weapons (we) This category includes URLs that provide information about buying, making, modifying, or using weapons such as guns, knives, swords, as well as ammunition or explosives. Weapons pages may highlight personal or military use.
	Web Ads (wa) This category includes URLs that provide ad-hosting or programs that create advertisements. For example: links, source code or applets for banners, pop-ups, and other kinds of static or dynamically generated ads that appear on Web pages.
	Web Mail (wm) URLs in this category provide access to email. Web Mail sites can expose users to harmful content delivered via e-mail file attachments.
	Web Phone (wp) This category includes sites that enable users to make telephone calls via the Internet or obtain information or software for this purpose. Web Phones are also called Internet Telephony, or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Web phone service includes PC-to-PC, PC-to-phone, and phone-to-phone services connecting via TCP/IP networks.