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It discusses software being marketed by several companies to UK (and US) schools to monitor the internet communications of pupils, some as young as four, for signs of (religious) "radicalisation."
The software simplistically monitors for lists of words and phrases such as "Jihobbyist," dodgy organisations, and the names of various ISIS propaganda videos.
For example: John Cantlie, War on Islam, Jihobbyist, Pogrom, YODO, Storm Front, Kuffs, Message to America.
When use of such a term is detected, a screenshot can be forwarded to a teacher. Perhaps the teacher should then dial 999 and ask for the police?
A jihobbyist is someone who sympathises, but rather than getting themselves stuck somewhere warm and sunny like Iraq or Syria, they instead only cheer them on from the comfort of their own home. You learn something new every day.
I suspect some companies are going to make a lot of money out of this — and young children are going to have much fun winding up the teachers.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Informative) by BsAtHome on Saturday June 13 2015, @06:54PM
You have been flagged,
Don't be alarmed and please stay calm and at your computer, A team of professionals has been dispatched to a{cc,ss}ess the situation and inform you of your potential.
Please note that interference with the investigation will result in criminal charges against you for obstruction of illegal interference with a private citizen at a private property by a non-specified governmental organisation.
No need to be alarmed. We are here to keep you safe.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:23PM
Jesus Christ -- K-12 students shouldn't even be given the opportunity to look that shit up on school computers. Student-facing networks and internet in K-12 schools should be locked the fuck down except for a whitelist of a handful of educational sites like Wikipedia, dictionaries and thesauruses, basically a least-privilege listing of everything a student needs to do their research with exceptions possibly vetted and added on a case-by-case basis.
Yeah, yeah, Of course the smarter ones are going to figure out ways around that. That's not my fucking point. And I know that Wikipedia is not suitable for proper research, but at least it's educational. My point is that students shouldn't be allowed to fuck off on Facebook or Twitter or Jihadbook or ISISchan at school.
(Score: 2) by CirclesInSand on Sunday June 14 2015, @02:44PM
If you try to lock down school computers, you will end up with students who are more educated about the reality of computer security than you are comfortable with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @10:23PM
I am comfortable with students learning about computer security.