The Samford Crimson

Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: News

Students who have surfed the web on Samford's campus have likely encountered the page that reads: "Web Page Unavailable from the Samford University Network. Category: G-Porn."

Lately, students have begun to notice a growing number of sites blocked from Samford's network. One of the more known sites to be blocked in the past year is fmylife.com, a popular blog that has entertained millions so far.

Many students claim that Samford has little justification for banning websites such as FML, compared to other allowed websites, or that banning violates their freedom of speech.

Sophomore history major Jacob Lewis said from his experience researching on the Internet for the debate team, he believes that the school should censor as little as possible.

"My personal opinion is that it's a personal choice. You should deem what is appropriate to look at or consume as far as media goes," Lewis said. "The fact that Samford gets to determine what is and isn't deemed acceptable, appropriate or a good representation of the school is pretty nebulous."

Freshman journalism and mass communication major Megan Beavers shared her opinions regarding the topic.

"There are a lot more explicit websites that should be blocked," Beavers said. "FML is more of a comic relief website, and I don't think it's that bad. We are adults, so I think we should be able to handle the content. It should be our decision to view it."

A common issue many students have faced is uncertainty as to why certain sites are banned and why others have not been touched at all. The threat now is to other sites that are similar to FML and may be the next to be added to the ban list. FML has lead to the creation of many other well-known sites such as mylifeisaverage.com and textsfromlastnight.com, both of which have gained a great amount of popularity in the last year.

No one in the technology department was directly responsible for specific sites being blocked on Samford's network, Samford's Interim Chief Information Officer Dennis Self said. Samford's technology department currently uses an application provided by their Internet service provider, Alabama Research and Education Network (AREN), which bases its blocks on categories of subject matter Samford has chosen in advanced that it deems inappropriate for a college campus. The categories blocked include pornography, child pornography, adult content, viruses, phishing, and spyware.

Self said AREN constantly updates the database of blocked sites based on the provided categories. "There is not really anyone at Samford who is picking the sites," he said.

In the end, the committee on academic technology and learning, which oversee the approval and banning of sites, makes the final decision on which sites are blocked.

Students can still get the sites they enjoy un-banned if they want to pursue it further. The technology department could override the system if a student comes with reasonable academic need for a blocked site, Self said.

"You would have to go to a faculty member and make a request, and if approved, it would be opened up," he said.

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