Experiences with Blocking Software

For this assignment I picked NetNanny from the list. Probably because it was most familiar to me.

Before heading on to the task results, I want to state out that I basically hate these kind of software as their ethos sucks: why should I filter the internet? Let the government filter the internet based on what the public decides (aka Reformparty promises that porn will go under .xxx or dissappear at all, when one would vote for them).

Filtering the internet personally just wastes my time and usually brings errors, which I have to deal with.

But on to the results. As expected, NetNanny was fierce with porn. Google porn results were all blocked. And some "not-so-legal" cracking sites banners (filled with porn too) or the sites themselves were blocked also.

While the blocking part was as expected, what disturbed me was the spy-functions (logs about IM use, website traffic etc.). It is truly fascist of a parent to get this kind of information (demand it) from anybody, specially one's children.

With that revelation, I un-installed the whole thing and hopefully I will never have to deal with net-spying again.