5 ms·

>The initiative being rolled out by the NCA to over 2,000 primary and secondary schools in the UK, ahead of going live at further schools and colleges across th

>The initiative being rolled out by the NCA to over 2,000 primary and secondary schools in the UK, ahead of going live at further schools and colleges across the country, will see students who search for terms associated with cybercrime greeted with an access denied "block page." Because telling adolescents that they aren't allowed to learn about something has an astounding success rate.

Quillbert182 5y ago
I'm sure kids searching for DDoS tools have never heard about VPNs.
- nisegami 5y ago
  Knowing what little I do about the UK government, I expect "VPN" to be considered a term "associated with cybercrime" as well.
  - maccard 5y ago
    You're not too far off; this [0] is a UK government sponsored campaign right now [0] https://noplacetohide.org.uk/ https://noplacetohide.org.uk/
    - 908B64B197 5y ago
      This has to be a joke.
      - belter 5y ago
        Sadly no: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29978952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29978952
      - maccard 5y ago
        I really wish it was, but no. It's a "grassroots" campaign, supported by the UK government, using statistics from the US. It's really pretty unbelievable
    - Handytinge 5y ago
      > We are not opposed to end-to-end encryption, as long as it is implemented in a way that does not put children at risk. Holy moley. Even if that were possible, do they think child groomers will have an issue using an "illegal" E2EE service?
tharne 5y ago
> Because telling adolescents that they aren't allowed to learn about something has an astounding success rate. It's got an amazing success rate; at motivating them to learn the exact thing you don't want them to.
joshstrange 5y ago
Back in 2006 in high school I carried an external hard drive with a clean macOS install on it. I'd boot that and I had a SOCKS proxy setup (before I knew of VPNs or could pay for one). It was a joy to browse unimpeded and without any annoying management software running. I can only imagine what kids are doing nowadays.
- james-redwood 5y ago
  I recently gave my enterprising son a Tails USB after learning about his school’s ridiculous blocking policies. The only condition was that he should sit with me for a few minutes each evening for me to teach him on a conceptual level how things like an OS, BIOS, Tor, etc work.
  - vondur 5y ago
    I would hope most school computers would be set to not allow non IT staff to boot from external devices.
    - gen3 5y ago
      Back in highschool I had an old USB drive with a Linux install, it worked fine. I also had a copy of tor browser, so I could watch YouTube. Good times. I learned quite a bit about networking and windows security.
    - 0xedd 5y ago
    - irrational 5y ago
      Seriously. My corporation has made it impossible for us to use USB sticks, external hard drives, etc. on company computers. Well, if you go before a panel and prove why you need one, they will give you a hardened one that you can use. But you really have to have a good excuse.
      - idiotsecant 5y ago

Quillbert182 5y ago

I'm sure kids searching for DDoS tools have never heard about VPNs.

nisegami 5y ago
Knowing what little I do about the UK government, I expect "VPN" to be considered a term "associated with cybercrime" as well.
- maccard 5y ago
  You're not too far off; this [0] is a UK government sponsored campaign right now [0] https://noplacetohide.org.uk/ https://noplacetohide.org.uk/
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    This has to be a joke.
    - belter 5y ago
      Sadly no: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29978952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29978952
    - maccard 5y ago
      I really wish it was, but no. It's a "grassroots" campaign, supported by the UK government, using statistics from the US. It's really pretty unbelievable
  - Handytinge 5y ago
    > We are not opposed to end-to-end encryption, as long as it is implemented in a way that does not put children at risk. Holy moley. Even if that were possible, do they think child groomers will have an issue using an "illegal" E2EE service?

tharne 5y ago

> Because telling adolescents that they aren't allowed to learn about something has an astounding success rate. It's got an amazing success rate; at motivating them to learn the exact thing you don't want them to.

joshstrange 5y ago

Back in 2006 in high school I carried an external hard drive with a clean macOS install on it. I'd boot that and I had a SOCKS proxy setup (before I knew of VPNs or could pay for one). It was a joy to browse unimpeded and without any annoying management software running. I can only imagine what kids are doing nowadays.

james-redwood 5y ago
I recently gave my enterprising son a Tails USB after learning about his school’s ridiculous blocking policies. The only condition was that he should sit with me for a few minutes each evening for me to teach him on a conceptual level how things like an OS, BIOS, Tor, etc work.
- vondur 5y ago
  I would hope most school computers would be set to not allow non IT staff to boot from external devices.
  - gen3 5y ago
    Back in highschool I had an old USB drive with a Linux install, it worked fine. I also had a copy of tor browser, so I could watch YouTube. Good times. I learned quite a bit about networking and windows security.
  - 0xedd 5y ago
  - irrational 5y ago
    Seriously. My corporation has made it impossible for us to use USB sticks, external hard drives, etc. on company computers. Well, if you go before a panel and prove why you need one, they will give you a hardened one that you can use. But you really have to have a good excuse.
    - idiotsecant 5y ago