Brigham Young University recently added Youtube.com, the popular user-generated video Web site, to a list of URLs blocked to its students. The school blocks sites it considers to contain violent or pornographic material.
AU blocks no Web sites currently, but has the capacity to do so if deemed necessary. Other video sharing Web sites, such as Google Video and Yahoo! Video, can still be accessed by BYU students.
AU has blocked no URLs, said Seare Habte, a help desk analyst in the Office of Information Technology at AU. The capability to block certain sites does exist, although "the only reason we would block a Web site is for a security issue. Other than that, anything goes."
Students at BYU are not prohibited from visiting these Web sites if they use their own servers. There is an exception form on the BYU Web site available to students who can log in to their server, according to BYU's information technology Web site.
In order to sign on to AU's campus Internet, students are required to sign in through Cisco Clean Access Agent. This program is not used for controlling the material available to students, but instead for "protecting its systems and data from these threats," according to the AU IT Security Policy.
BYU, a Mormon university located in Provo, Utah, has blocked sites for years they deem to contain "pornography, adult content and violence," said Carrie Jenkins, a BYU spokeswoman, in the Daily Herald. A BYU education must be "sustained by those moral virtues which characterize the life and teachings of the Son of God," according the BYU mission statement.
According to the BYU Information Technology Web site, the Web filter "helps provide a safer environment when browsing the Internet by preventing access to inappropriate Web sites." Selected Web sites are blocked in computer labs, on campus housing, public network jacks and the wireless connection.
Youtube.com said it already filters inappropriate material from its Web site. According to the Terms of Use agreement on the Web site, all videos containing "threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive" material will be removed and the user may be banned.
Youtube, founded in December 2005, has quickly become one of the most popular Web sites on the Internet. It was purchased by Google last year for $1.65 billion.
