This is week-and-a-half-old news, however it struck a nerve so I figured I’d post it. According to this article on App.com, Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, NJ is threatening students to make them stop participating in social networking with websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga. The article states:
Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.
While public and private schools routinely block access to noneducational Web sites on school computers, Pope John’s order reaches into students’ homes.
The primary impetus behind the ban is to protect students, McHugh said. The Web sites, popular forums for students to blog about their lives and feelings about their teachers and schools, are fertile ground for sexual predators to gather information about children, he said.
While it seems like the school is trying to protect its students, they are going about it the wrong way. Its a violation of free speech to police the students in this way. Educating the students about the dangers of a web presence would be a more reasonable approach.
Comments
205 responses to “School Bans Social Websites”
Wow. I cannot believe the contreversy this has created. I am startled at the way some people approach the way myspace has been blocked. I think that maybe we should just get over it. School is for school. It is nice to have an incentive to get you through the work though. There is a time to surf the web, and it would be after you have done what is needed. Why not allow students to make their own choices? If you don’t make mistakes you can never learn from them, right? If they chose to play with myspace, or anyother website, then that is their bad decisions and their consequences will reflect it. So live and let live.
if ppl choose to put there personal information on the internet then thats their problem. ppl that do that are just looking for some attention.
Regardless of the fact that some people are afraid of social networking websites, the reality is many people use them and many schools and college campuses across the country are blocking them.
Use a website like ProxyMy.com to bypass these firewalls and view myspace from work, school, or college.
Have fun :)
I think it should be the parents responsiblity to ensure their childrens’ well-being, not the schools. Most schools often input that they are having to “raise children all by themselves…” well, if they keep sticking their foot in where it does not belong, of course they will be left to raise them. The first amendment does not just apply to those over 18.
I THINK THAT BLOCKING MY SPACE FROM STUDENTS AT SCHOOL IS SO STUPID! HELLO I MEAN BLOCK IT OR NOT STUDENTS ARE GOING TO FIND A WAY TO GET BCK ON! SO WHY WAIST YOUR TIME ON DOING THAT WHEN U SHOULD BE WORRYING ABT OTHER THINGS THAT MATTER MORE!! WHAT HAPPENED TO HAVING UR OWN FREEDOM AND RIGHTS! WELL ITS JUST SO PATHETIC!
honsestly, we’re paying for taxes which fund the computers at school.. why should we be denied full access to what we pay for?
wow you people sound like really need to be paying attention in school
myspace is not helping your vocabulary
dude you guys are gay for blocking myspace at school have you ever thought about how long some kids are on it at home well ill tell you this a long fucking time and if you block it at school at home is the onky time we can go on it you guys wonder about why our grades are bad well if you think about it its kinda your fault so yeah
UNBLOCK MYSPACE NOW!!!
You all are pretty pathetic. The only reason you should be looking to unblock any website would be if your school has EVERYTHING blocked, which is my case. Myspace is dangerous, and you all should probably realize your school is only doing it to keep YOU safe.
You guys are completley missing the point. Just from reding your comments most of you have terrible spelling, use of punctuation, grammer, and not wide vocabulary you need all these in life. So instead of learning in class you are on my space and are not learning what you need. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with myspace I do have one.However, it is not my LIFE. There is a reality between myspace and life. Regardless of what you may think Myspace is not everything. School is to learn it is not the schools fault you did not go on myspace the night before.
omg mi skool dnt let us even use the comps often we only use them like 4 times a year!!!!!!! i mean its so gay the dnt let us have cellphones ether!!!!!!!!!
MI SKOOL IS WORST WE ANT ALLOWED LIKE ANYTHINK NOT ALLOWED FIZZY OR LOLLIES OR HOOP EARINGS OR EVEN CELL PHONES WE ANT ALLOWED ON THE COMP ETHER ITS SO GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i can see why the schools block myspaces.com but it is in our legal rights that the freedom of speech and writting the most inportan because i wrtie in my spaces not say but
our rights are being taking away in a very hostil way … who voted for this the people have a right to deffend their freedom and this action was taken with out our rights at liberity we the people of the united states have a right to vote for this action this action was not take with liberity but in terany my rights and the rest of american people rights were inviolated and invaded its states in the Connitoin” we the people of the united states” were was the people of the united states in this act no wear
this is a hostil act and im deeply impossed of this action
sincearly a 15 year old kid
wtf??!??!?! myspace shouldnt be blocked! serio shit pero en escuela yo ace todo mi tarrea y quando yo tengo todo esto tiempo en mi classe de computadora yo quierro ir a myspace. pichi putos( 2 whoever blocked myspace)
SCHOOL IS GAY! AND GIVES YOU NO FREEDOM!!!
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i think it really sucks.
my school is using WEBSENCE.
and i cant get onto myspace
Ok, so i just found this site, and i have something to say. Teenagers are stupid, adults. Get over yourselves. We’re not idiots. We know what goes on in the world, (whether we care or not) we know what are risks and dangers are. We KNOW that there is a chance of being stalked or something like that from myspace. Duh! That’s why most of us are smart enough to NOT ADD THE PEOPLE WE DON’T KNOW!
When my cousin was in the Military, Mysapce was the ONLY way i could keep in contact with him. It let me know that he was safe and ALIVE. Why don’t adults keep their minds on more important things like the war going on. I have 5 family members in Iraq right now. Do you know how that feels? I doubt it. It’s hard. Especially when i’m so close to them. I grew up without a father. and without much discipline. I know the error of my ways, and i know what i’ve done wrong. I may only be 16 years old, but i KNOW what to do and what not to do. If someone ends up getting stalked or ‘murdured’ becuause of “Myspace” it was their own faults for letting someone outside of your friends get so close. And ultimately the adults’ fault for not ‘teaching’ them not to do that. There are settings to keep non-friends from viewing your profile. And all children registered under the age of 15 have no choice but to use it. After that age they are expected to know the differnece between right and wrong. That is the adult generation’s responsibility to teach us that. After all, we are the leaders of tomorrow. So Why don’t you raise us like them. Don’t go about things the wrong way. I can tell you now that you already are.
Tom Morris. I realize that you haven’t posted in a while. But in case you still browse through here, your posts are truly appreciated. For seeing the other side of things.
ok..guys..all this is true but…..u have to know that most of this f%^$&@@s don’t read our comments and don’t care..and school directors/staff care zero for all this and i think that instead of just commenting about hoe mean they are and what they do..we should look for proxys outhere….hu?…well this one works …i know it does but not in my school anymore….under tools…then internet options then connection…type in myfreeproxy.com it should work for some of you all…i need one…
Real stpid to block this site
I know they dont listen. They need to though. Someday they are going to cause a rebellion that’s worse than they ever imagined. try proxyvan.com or proxysocket.com or proxyhole.com
dunno if they still work at your school or not.
They found them at mine though.
you i am so upset i just want to talk to my girlfriend the pig
I can see how the schools would block myspace in order to not get sued, but I think in my school they should only unblock the site in the library during lunch.But that’s just me.
http://www.mathcookbook.com
Look, its ot that complicated. Myspace is social forum where ideas can be exchanged. I use myspace just like i use texting and IM. As an educational study tool, you can post information and view information that is verry assistive to school work. Stop freaking out, if someone wants to prey on teens there are easier ways than myspace, and quite frankly if you have pictures of yourself naked and drunk on any type of wesite or journal maybe you have it coming to you. Keep your pants on and don’t be dirty and you wont have a problem. Use common scence, don’t had me that whole looking for love crap, if your so thick that you think that someone who lives two thosand miles away, who is incredibly hot and brillent needs to use the internet to find a mate, and can come visit you because his parents think its ok than you are an idiot. If you can’t find a real mate, theres a reson, you don’t deserve to breed.
here’s another way that might work…
go to “Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt”
(the little black box icon with “c:/” in it)
Once you have that open type in “ping myspace.com” dont type the quotes
then it’ll give you a bunch of numbers.
[216.178.32.49] type it into an address bar of internet explorer.
you can do this to any site just type ping then the website
the numbers are the ip address of the website.
This method worked at my school for couple of months until too many people started using and now its banned. Hope you guys have better luck. For me, I have to use other methods now…
here are a few that dont work at my school but work at others
http://www.mathcookbook.com
http://www.etary.com
http://www.etunnel.com
http://www.iamnewguy.com
http://www.chasebadkids.com
http://www.fsurf.com
theres lot more but i forget
try google searching it
im so annoyed all contacting webbys have been blocked…no one is happy
Bebo, Piczo, myspace, bingbox, facbox, chatrooms and our email has been removed unless we really need it
WHICH IS ALL THE TIME….COME ON !!!! DONT WE HAVE A LIFE
http://www.websiteunblocker.com
http://www.bebounlocker.com
these may work but they are blocked here
good luck…
okay… well this is waht i think… i think that schools should not block them becuase its not like they let us on the computer when we are taking a test or anything only when we have free time. and i think that they shouldn’t block it becuase that’s the only way kids can actually have fun at school or talk to other people. and about the people tracing us down and killing us or whatever. we are smart enough to only talk to people we know.. becuase we have heard so many times about that stuff and i think we know to be careful…. and i think its soo stupid taht we dont have it… becuase i am grounded from my phone and the computer at home anyway and i freeking miss facebook!!!!!!!!! :(
If you want to access Myspace from school then use this site.
http://www.myspacetornado.com
You can also go on YouTube, Ebay etc.
that is stupid… my school banned myspace too… there is a website called myspaceatschool.com but they blocked that at out school too… you kids can try to go on that…
I found some awesome sites to unblock myspace at school or work without any problems.
http://www.myspacebypass.com
http://www.myspaceproxy1.org
http://www.myspaceproxysite.net
myspaceproxy1.info
http://www.myspacebypass.net
http://www.bypassmyspace.net
http://www.unlockmyspace.info
These are all free and work great!
Goodluck.
these people have no right to do that….my school tries to block it and is quite successful at it…..
help anyone?
Well, I compiled a list of about 300 proxies, and made a script to parse several other proxy list sites for their proxies.
http://multithreading.ath.cx/index.php?page=Proxy%20Page
Roughly 2,500 proxies on there. Just type an address in the input field, select a proxy from the top dropdown menu, and hit go. If it doesnt work, choose a different proxy from the top drop down menu.
OR, just click one of the ~2 thousand proxies in the lower menu. There is also a link to download the script, so people can create mirrors, each with the ability to cache the list.
dia is sum bull shit do dat shit it ain’t nothin bad i like myspace
well they should not ban myspace for kid b.c. kids have fun on that they should block the user that want to mess with yu dat all………..??am just confused
Well since i think myspace rules here’s a way to get on in most schools
go to http://www.google.com type in hidemyway press enter then when the results come up click on the second result option then just type whatever website you want to unblock then simply press enter and your in
The atrocious spelling and horrendous grammar speaks of an entire
generation with the brains of a worm and patience of a flea.
It is appalling that I must wade through the many unimpressive
diatribes to get to one tiny speck of hope in this mostly
illiterate band of ne’er-do-wells.
If the teenster set has illustated it’s shortcomings to the
extent as shown on this site, then what must the parents be like?
Egad! I see a dark and miserable future for America if this site
is one of the shining examples of literary expression.
Perhaps as a solution for the illiterate MySpace generation,
an extension of an idea posted earlier would be an appropriate
solution to banning it from homes and schools.
Make MySpace users master a few English lessons before being
allowed to logon. A bit of rote learning and some spelling lessons
might make for a much more enjoyable MySpace and general Instant
Messaging environment.
I say the schools should concentrate on basic spelling and
grammatical skills and the parents should be left to decide
as to what is appropriate computer use at home (subject to
basic common sense and legality).
===
As a hint to you proxy lovers, make your own proxy server
at home by downloading proxy server software onto your home
computer which redirects web traffic from school to your home
computer and then back out to the wider internet.
Do a Google.com or AltaVista.com or Dogpile.com
search on these keywords: “freeware proxy server software”
Just give out your home IP address of something like
205.123.22.2 instead of an actual URL address to access the
home-based proxy server and if that IP address is blocked
just renew your home’s IP address at the Windows
command line prompt:
IPCONFIG /RELEASE
and then type
IPCONFIG /RENEW
To get to a Windows Command Prompt goto the RUN command
and type CMD.EXE or create a text file using Windows Notepad
and name it COMMAND.BAT and then drag it to your desktop.
Write the following commands in this file:
IPCONFIG /RELEASE
pause
IPCONFIG /RENEW
pause
IPCONFIG /ALL
Pause
Click or double-click on the bacth file in order to run it.
These commands will release and renew the Dynamic IP address
of your home proxy server and show you it’s new IP address
which you can give out only to your friends. Do it every 3 days
and your school administrators will have to tear what little
hair they have left trying to block those addresses that
keep changing.
Hope this helps
Finally, a well thought-out post…
However, on the ipconfig stuff, that probably wont work in many circumstances. I’m thinking it may work with dialup, but anything high speed probably won’t work:
ipconfig /release : Changes internal (if on dialup, I think it is external) ip to 0.0.0.0
ipconfig /renew : Requests new internal (external with dialup?) ip via dchp (dhcp?).
It might also work if you have the kind of dsl where the phone directly goes into your computer.
Also, to add on to the ‘Make your own proxy’ comment from above, I recommend using these: http://www.peacefire.org/circumventor/simple-circumventor-instructions.html steps to set up your own. That way you get https, which may bypass many blocks anyway.
you can download firefox at shcool i did it
This comment is for all you people who can’t get to my space on the school computers. In the search bar type in, http://216.178.38.131 and this should bring you directly to myspace. I havent tried it on my schools computers yet, havent really had a chance. But im pretty sure it will work. If not, sorry to everyone who read this.
het trythis http://www.unblock-bebo.info that letsmeon anything wellit did
man my school has had myspace blocked for years and its bull crap now my dad has a block on it lol
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Schools have no right to tell kids they cannot have myspaces. That is for the parents to decide. I can understand them banning the website at school but leave the parenting to the parents! I am 15 and have had a myspace since it first came out and I have my profile private so you cannot see anything on it. I only have about 70 friends on it because I only add people that I know. Teenagers are not as stupid as everyone makes us out to be. I know that some teens are stupid and tell some dude where she lives but the schools should have some sort of meeting with the student body to educate the students about it and if they don’t listen its there own fault. These sorts of things make me so angry especially since my own school suspended a kid for having something written on their myspace. It’s a complete invasion of privacy that only our parents should be able to have a say in!
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Soprry edase :(
roWng categorpy…
will be careul
http://xyndros.ath.cx/pr0xy/Zelune
http://xyndros.ath.cx/pr0xy/Zelune
You can use that as a myspace proxy, get to myspace bypass filters, etc.
It lets you login too.
You can use that as a myspace proxy, get to myspace bypass filters, etc.
It lets you login too.
From my (and other tech savvy people’s) point of view, Myspace is harmful to computers. There have been countless computers infected by worms, trojans, backdoors, spyware, malware, and other security compromising items. Social sites would be OK if they were just that, social sites. They are a breeding ground for computer viruses. Just because you don’t see anything pop up, don’t think you’re not infected. There aren’t too many viruses that let you know you’re infected, they all stay hidden. Each and every one of you are infected right now.
Going to myspace on a computer that belongs to and is maintained by a tech savvy person will trigger their superior security measures. The threat is real. You guys may think the school has no right to tell you where you can and can’t go on the hardware they own using the internet service they provide (which by law they do, since they own the stuff), they’re mostly doing it to keep their networks virus free. The whole “myspace keeps kids from learning” may be true, but they just preach that because it’s good for PR.