[K12OSN] thoughts on web browsing....

[Joe Guenther]

Just my 2 bits worth. ....

My last school (a private school)  logged all internet access with Novell
BorderManager.  It logged the userid, ip address of workstation, time, URL
We then did a grep for common words like, adult, sex, nude, cheat, mp3, etc
piped that to another file.  A quick glance through that shows if there are
problems or if it was about sussex, etc.  Those users could then be searched
for their history on that day.  If there was a problem, the material was
printed and given to the principal.  In the 4 years at that highschool of
350kids, we had 3 incidents that needed talking.
We had no internet filter, but the students knew the logs where reviewed on
a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

It worked great ... expect honesty and you generally get honesty.


What we could NOT monitor, was if Johnny was using Susie's account.  But
generally Susie would not let Johnny use her account, lest he surf where he
shouldn't and get her into trouble.

Let is also be said that this was a private school.  All kids signed an
Acceptable Use Policy before their accounts were activated.  The parents
also read and intialed these agreements (so they also knew what was
happening). This kids wanted to be here.  They parents wanted us to do this.
(To some the fact that we had no filter was still an issue ...)   This is
VERY difficult to do in a public situation - data privacy, etc etc...
public access to computers, etc etc.

But you are perfectly right.   The occasional quick glance though an
internet log will catch the people that have a problem - taking them on to
the place where they can be helped.  The inadvertent misspelled word or
whitehouse.com was easy to spot and never an issue. (the log shows they were
at that site for 3 sec before the next site comes and there is no further
mention of that site.  The person with the problem will fill pages of
logs!!!

You are also right that the grapevine does the rest.  Yes there are kids
that don't care, but generally kids want to fit into their social
surroundings.  The grapevine is extremely powerful.

just a bit of my experience
joe

-----Original Message-----
From: k12osn-admin at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-admin at redhat.com]On Behalf
Of Bert Rolston
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 4:24 PM
To: K12OSN
Subject: Re: [K12OSN] thoughts on web browsing....


Hi Scott,

A tight usage policy will prevent a lot of abuse.

The habitual / perpetual abuser will get caught eventually. When that
happens a big song and dance (without mentioning names) helps to
publicise the misdemeanor.

The librarian I used to work with would phone me if she suspected
internet abuse. Then I would VNC onto the machine to verify. If abuse
was occuring I would take control of the machine, log the student off,
and the librarian would advise that student they had been caught. The
grapevine would do the rest.

None of the students required special counseling, or treatment. They
knew they were in the wrong, and accepted the ban.

We used the 3 strikes approach. Contract is strike 1, first abuse a
short term ban (1 week to 1 term) strike 2, second abuse permanent ban
for current year (reviewed at the begging of the next academic year).


HTH
Bert


On Thu, 2004-03-04 at 09:30, Scott Sherrill wrote:
> >On Thu, 2004-03-04 at 05:10, Scott Sherrill wrote:
> >
> >>  Once in awhile, students will share their accounts with their
> >>  friends.  If for example Johnny loses his privileges he will borrow
> >>  Sally's account and surf as her.
> >
> >
> >I would make it clear that intentionally  subverting any access
> >mechanism would result in *instant* and *permanent* account termination
> >for *all* concerned - and *then* see if Sally would so keenly offer her
> >account for illicit purposes (illicit because there is probably good
> >reason that Johnnys' account was revoked.)
> >
> >Kids need to be aware that ;
> >
> >1.)  they are monitored
> >2.)  abusers get their account zapped
> >3.)  abusers will get *your* account irretrievably zapped if you loan it
> >4.)  access is a privilege
> >
>
>
> I agree with you 100% Steve, but the only way they are currently
> getting caught is if I am actively looking.  That's why I'd like to
> give classroom teachers more tools to look for that abuse.
>
> I did some further looking and it doesn't look like the banner idea
> is going to float.  There are very few references out there for that
> solution using Squid and an auto-added banner.
>
> Scott
>
>
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--
==================================
Bert Rolston Computer Support Ltd.
Mobile - 027 264 0851
==================================
Specialising in system support
alternative solutions and
Linux operating system
==================================


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