Bypassing Filters
Content filtering in general can "be bypassed entirely by tech-savvy individuals" Blocking content on circumvention advice "...guarantee that users won't eventually be able to find a way around the filter."
Some software may be bypassed successfully by using alternative protocols such as FTP or telnet or HTTPS, conducting searches in a different language, using a proxy server or a circumventor such as Psiphon. Also cached web pages returned by Google or other searches could bypass some controls as well. Web syndication services may provide alternate paths for content. Some of the more poorly-designed programs can be shut down by killing their processes: for example, in Microsoft Windows through the Windows Task Manager, or in Mac OS X using Force Quit or Activity Monitor. Numerous workarounds and counters to workarounds from content-control software creators exist. Google services are often blocked by filters, but these may most often be bypassed by using https:// in place of http:// since content filtering software is not able to interpret content under secure connections (in this case SSL).
Many content filters have an option which allows authorized people to bypass the content filter. This is especially useful in environments where the computer is being supervised and the content filter is aggressively blocking Web sites that need to be accessed.
Some school system administrators are choosing to use the safety mode on school computers when students are accessing YouTube in order to prevent the viewing of objectionable content. In an attempt to stop students from turning off the safety mode and accessing potentially offensive videos, many of the administrators are locking the safety mode, which will automatically re-enable safety mode when a student attempts to turn it off. An example of a school that follows this method is the Musselburgh Grammar School in Scotland.
An encrypted VPN can also be used as means of bypassing content control software, especially if the content control software is installed on an Internet gateway or firewall.
Sometimes, the antivirus software with web protection may stop the content-control filter.
Read more about this topic: Content-control Software
Famous quotes containing the word filters:
“Raise a million filters and the rain will not be clean, until the longing for it be refined in deep confession. And still we hear, If only this nation had a soul, or, Let us change the way we trade, or, Let us be proud of our region.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)