Our boarding school has used a proxy system to essentially block the internet.

YouTube, Reddit and Netflix has been blocked by the proxy known as smoothwall. Their excuse, "this is an educational establishment. You should not be distracted by such media" This would be fair except for the fact that all borders live here essentially 24/7 and we should not be expected to be working in our free time. As this place is a secondary school (UK) all pupils are over the age of 13 meaning that everyone is allowed to have accounts on various social media.

Its pretty stupid that some of the pupils here are old enough to drink alcohol and drive a car but no how preposterous that we should have the privilege of a lightly restricted internet. Most teachers also use YouTube for homework so it is actually hindering our education.

You may say that a proxy/vpn would work. Nope all of them are blocked by the school. All we want is to be able to access sites that we can use to relax and socilaize with. Illegal streaming sites and porn sites should be restricted but youtube...really?

Sign this petition in order for your voice to be heard as the pupils of our school no longer want our internet to be restricted to that of China's