How to censor (was Re: [COLUG] Google Engaged In Censorship in the U.S.)

[Scott Merrill]

Brian Miller wrote:
> On Friday 13 October 2006 5:00 pm, Aaron Howard wrote:
>> I have a teenage son and a nine year old daughter and I wish to censor
>> what they have access to on the Internet.  

I have kids, and blocked their internet access for awhile.  Ultimately,
I decided for my own kids that I was comfortable with them having
unfiltered web access.  They're going to be exposed to plenty of stuff I
don't agree with in the years ahead, and at least at home they'll be
able to come to me or my wife right away with questions / concerns.  I
also make it a point to check on them when they're online, to see what
it is they're doing.  I've been surprised at the number of "learning
opportunities" that have resulted (and to date, none of them have
involved inappropriate content!).

I'm certainly not telling you how to raise your kids -- just sharing my
perspective.

>> 1. Block undesirable Internet traffic (hard block lists of sites and/or
>> regex matching on certain phrases), including HTTP, FTP, AIM, and in-
>> game chats (like chatting in RuneScape, for instance)
> Squid with a firewall can do this.  

Blocking in-game chats for RuneScape would likely require you to block
RuneScape itself, wouldn't it?  If I recall correctly, this is a
browser-based game?

>> 2. Proxy SMTP for logging what e-mails are being sent and proxy POP3
>> access to external mailboxes for proper spam/anti-virus handling.
> I'm not aware of any smtp proxies (although perhaps spam assassin could do 
> something like this), but you could use something like procmail, which would 
> allow you to download all email to your server before distribution to the 
> recipients (and keep a copy of it someplace else).  This would require 
> blocking POP and SMTP ports with a firewall, to ensure people didn't get 
> around your procmail settings.

These two applications may be able to help you:
http://quietsche-entchen.de/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/proxies/Pop3Proxy
http://quietsche-entchen.de/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/proxies/SmtpProxy

I used SMTP.Proxy a long time ago, but never looked at the source.  You
may or may not be able to modify it to do what you want.

If you're using Postfix, there is an option to BCC a specific address
_all_ messages that come through.

>> 6. Not let on to the kids that censoring is happening
> This might be harder to accomplish.  It requires complete secrecy on the part 
> of your wife and yourself, as well as not posting comments about censoring 
> your kids on a publically available web site (the COLUG archives) that your 
> kids might find if they Google for your name and/or email address.  

I'm certain you've considered the ramifications of such a policy, but
generally speaking "security through obscurity" is thought to be a
losing proposition.

>> But, how do I get around the filters, identify whether a certain web
>> page was viewed by my son or my wife...all in a manner that will keep
>> him in the dark that I am even filtering/logging stuff?

Would a VLAN be able to help?  Apply different rules / policies / ACLs
to different VLANs.  This assumes everyone has their own computer, of
course.

Cheers,
Scott

-- 
skippy at skippy.net | http://skippy.net/

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