Internet connections

[shadrach]

I'm curious how people here connect to the internet. In the church I am growing up in, (I'm not grown up yet), everyone (don't blame me if you find out it's 99%) uses Security Appliance (sold by Compass Foundation) that was developed by a EPMC man. It's very well developed, and used by very many conservative Mennonites, so I wouldn't be surprised if 1 or 2 members here know about it. It's a content filter, rather than a white/black list. It dynamically searches each requested URL, then the returned web page, and blocks according to phrase count. (Like putting the magazine in the fire.) Or it will allow the page, but prune images, videoes, and so forth. (Like digging out the wide black Sharpie and scissors.)

Advertisements are always blocked. I would hate to not have that. In case anyone thinks ad-blockers are unfair (but maybe no one does), I quote the developer of the appliance: "I have no sympathy for ad companies. The ads they create are " (in my own words) poor quality, annoying, filthy, [and so forth]. Not to mention the fact that there are many better ways of making an income.

Suggestions for the poll are welcome. I think I can edit the questions, but the votes will be removed. (It's that way on another phpBB forum I know well.)

[temporal1]

are your questions for CMs? or all?

[shadrach]

For everyone, if anyone wants to answer.

[Hats Off]

Mine is the Security Appliance by Compass.

[Neto]

I am the infidel that has no filter. In my business of dealing with all sorts of computer problems, I sometimes have to keep going in a google search until everything is in some weird language. No filter I know of would allow me to do what I need to do.

But here's my basic thinking on this. I do not have internet in my shop, where I generally work alone, only in my office at home. I do not have a 'smart phone' with internet. I'm a car guy, and it used to be that you had to avoid looking at the calendar in any car parts place. In Brazil, where we served as missionaries, the dress standards were even worse than here, partly maybe because it is 'always summer' there, and it's so hot. But the culture there accepts a low view of women, and pornographic posters are tacked up outside every news paper & magazine stand, and speaking of the newspaper, after Carnival one dare not look at the paper, because they will print pages upon pages of nude women who paraded through the streets that way during the 'festivities'. (I made that error once - wondering what was so interesting in the paper that a group of men at the open market were all crowded around. I had forgotten that just a few days before had been Carnival. I forgot because we lived outside of the city, and so managed to miss all of that first hand.)

More importantly than any 'justification' for why I can't have a filter is the admission that I MUST exercise personal responsibility. I don't mean to imply that having a filter is NOT exercising self-control, but I try to always remember that what I see today will be with me for a long, long time, if not forever. (Errors in judgement in the past - sins - have proven that to me, and that is just not what I want. And prayers to that end are always appreciated.)

[Neto]

Posting this by request from Shadrach: (He is blocked from quoting my post because of his filter. I guess I used some words that threw up red flags.)

Re: Internet connections
Sent: Tue Jul 31, 2018 9:59 pm
From: shadrach
Recipient: Neto

Subject: Internet connections

Neto wrote:
...


Thank you for your post Neto. No internet alone is a great help, I am sure.

Even though our connection at home and work has always been filtered, I use the computer often enough that when the filter under-blocks, I find it. And I didn't learn from my errors like you did. Sobering how the issue of indecent pictures (euphemism to avoid triggering the filter) is so directly related to internet filtering. Your testimony shamed and encouraged me.

(Due to your decent references to indecent content my filter prevented me from replying to that thread, even though I can view it. I don't understand why. Can you post this on my behalf?)


Last edited by shadrach on Tue Jul 31, 2018 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am humbled by his response, because I do acknowledge that I do not always do as I would like to have done. (See Romans 7, which I do interpret as depicting a believer, not an unbeliever. This is the reason we SO look forward to the transformation that will take place when we 'become like Christ', fully and w/o any blemish of sin.)

[Judas Maccabeus]

Open DNS. Compass is way not yet ready for prime time. If I attempt a search on the name of my car, it will block same. It still does not seem to get context. Our conference does not specify what filter to use.

J.M.

[Josh]

On my iPhone I use Apple's "Limit Adult Content" feature which works very well. I do not run across "false positives" enough that it is a problem, and out of respect for the guidelines of my church, I leave the Restrictions passcode with someone else so I don't have a way to get around it, other than spending a few hours hard resetting my phone and losing all the information on it.

I use some software provided by my church group for a filtered version of Telegram (a messaging app like WhatsApp) and for a general restrictions on my phone.

I don't have a personal laptop and just use my work laptop and trust the level of filtering / monitoring by my employer or my employer's customers is sufficient to keep me out of harm's way. To give you an idea of how one of them does things, I needed to save some computer code and uploaded to GitHub, and the way I did it was on the grey edge of being against policy. An executive stopped by my desk the next day to ask what I was up to. I provided my justification, showed what I did, and was exhorted not to do so again.

In my opinion, Christians would be well-served if they had a filtering platform similar to the above. If I felt tempted to do things I know I shouldn't, I can't imagine ever doing them on my work computer, because I would simply know someone is watching.

[KingdomBuilder]

I leave the Restrictions passcode with someone else so I don't have a way to get around it, other than spending a few hours hard resetting my phone and losing all the information on it.

This is how my phone is set up.

[silentreader]

CleanInternet, on a PC and an Android phone. Works as a filter and can be used for accountability. Has good tech support.

On the Android phone it blocks Google except for maps and runs as a browser.