6/30/2008

Can I get some first amendment up in here?

I was at the library near my parents' this morning, getting some stuff done for work, and was unable to check through all my friends' blogs. I got this:

I got over that, but then when I wanted YouTube, I got:

What the F? What is this, censorship? Are not libraries supposed to be bastions of free speech? When I inquired, the librarian assured me that this was not usual, and that she really had no idea why these sites were blocked. She said they block things for kids on the library's own computers, but that adults and laptop users shouldn't have any filtering going on. Color me suspicious.

5 comments:

penthesileia said...

This is one of the reasons I HATE parental blocks/filters/etc. It takes the responsibility away from the parent or guardian to actually worry about what their child is looking at on the Internet while the censorship in the name of "protecting the children" messes around with everyone else's right to see what they want to see on the Internet. The vast majority of blogs on Blogspot are perfectly fine, but get you one disgruntled parent who complains because they never taught Little Precious how to responsibly use the Internet -- and has no intention to -- and voila! Blogspot blocked. GRR!

ellen said...

Little Precious

haa

Jake said...

Dear Ellen,
Whenever you are censored you can get around it by using a "proxy hider." These are more common in countries with even more government regulation and censorship. Just go to www.ktunnel.com. It will have a search box, just enter the site you want and you are good to go.

or just google: proxy hiders

Jake said...

Dear Ellen,
When they block your desired website go to a "proxy hider." It is common in countries where there is a lot of government oversight. It deceives them of your location. Go to ktunnel.com, it will have a search box, enter the website in there and you're good to go.
-Jake

ellen said...

Thanks, Jake!