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ESD offers schools Web blocker Free filter rejects porn, hate sites By VICKI GUARINO Classroom computers around the county soon will be locked out of inappropriate Internet sites. The Jackson Education Service District for the first time is offering schools a filtering service that has won praises for its thoroughness. The lone Jackson County school district that contracts Internet service independent of the ESD, Medford, has just this week installed the same filter for its 18 schools. "No filter is 100 percent, but this one is close," says Medford School District network analyst Jeffrey Bales. "I would say this one is 97 percent. "To my knowledge, there's no way around it." ESD's Rich Haugh agrees that no system is fail-safe but says the service from Seattle-based N2H2 is the best the ESD has found. N2H2, founded by a couple concerned about their children's Net access, specializes in filters for school networks, government agencies and Internet service providers. To make it even more attractive, the new service is free. In a special offer, the filtering system is offered without charge to school districts that serve more than 10,000 students. Advertising provides the income for the company. The ESD provides Internet access to some 17,000 students across Jackson County. The introduction of N2H2 marks the first time the ESD has offered a filtering service to school districts. The service is optional, so districts can make the final decision of whether to block student access to certain kinds of Web sites. Haugh said the unreliable nature of other filters on the market, their costs and the differing needs of the local schools all played a part in past decisions against filtering. Meanwhile, teachers, media specialists and administrators have been requesting some kind of filtering system to keep students away from Internet hate mongering, violence, pornography and other inappropriate material. "It has been an issue they've dealt with for years," Haugh says. Most filtering systems have gaps so large they are practically useless, technology specialists say. The new service works by blocking certain key words. Also, company staff roam the Web and provide daily updates to the filtering system. Bales says the system appears to be more effective than a system Medford used previously. He said he has made several attempts to get around the new system, and failed. Nonetheless, both Haugh and Bales caution, no system can be 100 percent effective. "There are always people out there trying to trick you," Bales says. And with enough determination, he adds, "you could get around anything." Haugh suggests that a very low-tech alternative is ultimately more reliable than the best computer system. "The best filter," Haugh says, "is the teacher watching what is going on." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA