Internet access in schools, whether at the secondary or graduate level, has become a necessity. Unfortunately, there are several problems that come with it. How a student deals with these will depend on his or her school but there is no place in schools for draconian methods. And since total trust has also become something of the past, students and professors alike require a modicum of protection. With the growing number of legal requirements that surround Internet access it has become necessary to provide clear guidelines on acceptable use and to provide a clear and workable security policy.
To do all this with ease requires a good Internet management solution, one that fits in with the growing needs of your network environment. Websense Enterprise can provide this type of protection. With the capability for handling 500 requests per second, this is particularly scalable and easily managed software solution. Using policy-based access management, it can integrate with your own policy to provide the type of filtering that is desirable for your particular circumstances.
Websense Enterprise filters, monitors and reports on what is happening on your internal network in relation to Internet access. Websense Enterprise works by checking the content and filtering to your corporate demands. An existing database includes more than 1,500,000 sites that can be blocked, permitted or postponed, depending on your chosen settings. Managing your users in groups or individually by title, even by time of day, can ensure that students aren't surfing undesirable sites during the school day.
Websense Enterprise, however, receives a tremendous amount of criticism by students all over the world. St. Mark's School, a college preparatory school located in Southborough, Massachusetts, was one high school in which the students and teachers shared similar opinions about the use of Websense. "I can't acess Facebook. And facebook is the only way for me to keep in touch with my friends back in California," says Timothy Webber, a junior at St. Mark's. Indeed, Websense has censored a number of websites that were perceived as "non-academic." Yet, some of them that were censored were absurd. In fact, Youtube, New York Times and even Daum, were once blocked. As a result, many students felt they were limited to the outside world and protested against the school adminstration.
There are indeed a number of pros and cons in regards to the use of Websense. Though it might seem very favorable to the administrators, it is a source of agonizing pain for the students who have to deal with it. And in fact, many are tempted to bypass Websense and breach a major school rule. The justification of Websense is still an ongoing controversy, but it seems that several schools are realizing how many challenges that the system provokes, perhaps as many as non usage.
