"Internet censor" for St. Petersburg schools: no Wikipedia, no "United Russia"

At the beginning of December 2012, it became known that during implementation of the law "On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and Development" in the schools of St. Petersburg install the program "Internet Censor".

According to the developers, the program blocks access to social networks, blogs, chats, dating sites, etc., including sites with extremist materials, with information about informal youth movements, promoting drug use and containing information about suicide. When trying to access a prohibited site, the user is redirected to the page of the "Internet Censor" program.

Program implemented at the direction of district departments public education, operates on the principle of "white list", that is, it opens access only to resources known to her. The content of this list is opaque (reportedly, that it was made up of " former teachers " who " manually processed 90% of the Runet sites "), but it is obvious that it is small. Its principle formation is unclear: the list probably does not include sites that are not known about program developers.

As a result, Internet users in schools (not only schoolchildren, but also teachers) cannot access the vast majority of resources (including popular mail services, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.). Unavailable site "United Russia", but available mixed martial arts website containing videos that could be considered "violent scenes").

It should be noted that the actions of St. Petersburg officials look like insurance. In addition, bypassing the installed program is not is a special task.

Sources

• Soshnikov Andrey. Internet in St. Petersburg schools: Wikipedia, YouTube and another 99% of sites were banned // My area (St. Petersburg). 2012. December 4th.