Solution

Google is said to be a hacker's favorite weapon. It is no different in this case. By using Boolean searches you can find TONS of new web-based proxies. Googlebot updates its list daily and it is constantly expanding. Use this search term:

+"include form" +"remove scripts" +"accept cookies" +"show images"

This search will look for all CgiProxy/PhpProxy web sites that have been set to default or have not been drastically altered. There are thousands of these sites out there on the Internet, and many new ones that come online each day. The filtering companies use search terms like these to find new proxy sites and block them. Now the student can fight fire with fire.

Here is a typical web proxy page:

See why the above search term worked? It looked for the specific key terms that are on a CgiProxy/PhpProxy page. By using all of those key words in one long Boolean term, we can eliminate approximately 20,000 web pages from Google's list and get better results.

+"Include Form" +"Remove Scripts" +"Accept Cookies" +"Show Images" +"Show Referer" +"Rotate13" +"Base64" +"Strip Meta" +"Strip Title" +"Session Cookies" +"New Window"

The flaw in using these search terms is that there may be some duplicate proxy pages. Testing proved that the proxies higher up on Google's list (pages 1-30) had fewer broken links than those in the back. Here is a table showing the number of results given by various search engines using the string above:

The good search engines to find web proxies on are Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and MSN. I would not recommend using any of the others.

I am going to switch focus now from the technical means of circumventing censorship and look into the controversy surrounding internet filtering in America .

Internet Censorship in the U.S.

The United States of America is supposedly a country that bathes in democracy and is the decapitator of censorship. Our nation is widely known for criticizing totalitarian regimes that utilize web censorship as a means for oppressing their people. Countries like China , North Korea , Saudi Arabia , Cuba , and Iran are among the worst offenders. It is cynical to think that the U.S. would use internet censorship in its schools and libraries much in the same way as these dictatorships. The sad part is that we do.

The Here and Now

Since 2001, the United States has required all schools and libraries that receive federal funding (which is most of them) to install web filtering software. The Child Internet Protection Act is flawed in that the blocking software that it requires does a poor job of filtering out illicit content and instead blocks legitimate web pages. Prominent web sites such as Amnesty International, the National Organization for Women, various educational blogs, and even sites that innocently promoting Islam and Buddhism have been blocked. The blocking of legitimate information in the United States is called censorship. There is no other word for it.

School administrators have left the responsibility of blocking web pages to companies that seek to turn a profit. Among them are Websense and N2H2, both of whom have long histories of dislike from students and teachers across the country. This discontent has arisen because the filter blocks many quintessential youth and educational sites. The cyber generation has been hog-tied from learning by corporations, flawed politics, and media hysteria.

The Future

The situation will only get worse. On July 26, 2006, by a vote of 410 to 15, the House of Representatives passed the Deleting Online Predators Act. This bill states that all sites on the Internet that "allow communication between users" must be blocked in schools and libraries. The legislation arose after the deaths of several teenagers that had met strangers on the social networking site Myspace.com. Critics point out that the majority of stalking is done from a computer within a child's home, and more often than not the child actually knows the predator. Despite these warnings, elected officials have bowed to parental hysteria in hopes of keeping votes for the upcoming election.

This table clearly shows the ignorance of our legislative branch. Usually there is a severe partisan split among Republicans and Democrats on almost all issues. They were tricked into voting for this bill: who does not want to delete online predators? I ask the question "Who wants to delete the Internet?"

That decision will have a devastating effect on research and general activities on the Internet. All blogs that allow comments would need to be blocked in U.S. public schools and libraries. The number of sites that would fit into this broad definition are enormous. If this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law by the President, the United States will officially become a nation of censorship.

Even if the Deleting Online Predators Act does pass and the Internet becomes severely restricted, there will always be those that believe in freedom and will work tirelessly to circumvent censorship.

Note about the author

Noblockingme.com is dedicated to fighting internet censorship and web filtering around the world. It is particularly concerned with the youth cause against filtering in the United States public school system. Please send questions and comments to contact@noblockingme.com.

Written by Noblockingme.com