Island students surfing the Internet this year are blocked from viewing web sites containing inappropriate content for children. All schools now have filtered Internet access with BorderManager, a software program offering filtering capabilities.
"There is a wealth of information for students on the Internet and used properly it is an excellent educational tool," says Minister of Education, Chester Gillan. "This measure was taken as a precaution so students would not be exposed to inappropriate subject matter while in school."
BorderManager restricts access to the Internet using sets of filtering rules that either grant or deny users access to Internet web sites. It also guards against the possibility of infiltration of school networks by outside sources.
As its primary filtering function, BorderManager uses a list of web sites which have been screened for inappropriate content by CyberPatrol, an Internet filtering system designed to manage Internet access. When a user tries to visit any web site, BorderManager compares the site's address to the list of inappropriate sites prepared by CyberPatrol. If the address is found in the list, then access to the web site is blocked. If the address is not found in the list, then access to the web site is permitted.
Web sites contained in the CyberPatrol list include graphics and text in the following categories: violence/profanity, partial nudity, full nudity, sexual acts, gross depictions, intolerance, satanic/cult, drugs/drug culture, militant/extremist, sex education, questionable/illegal gambling, and alcohol and tobacco.
It is important to note that Internet access at public libraries will not be filtered at any time. This means that public access workstations in school-based public libraries will not have restricted Internet access at any time.