Hey. PSA. US specific, but I don't know if this is an issue in other countries. If you're still in school or have kids in school, please check any school issued devices for blocking software. Most of these are both censorship programs and/or data mining programs. Most will block anything relating to games, music, streaming sites, etc., but also often block LGBTQ+ terms, sex education, gun violence, current events, and anything relating to mental health. I just found out my school's software, deladao, both blocks any LGBTQ terms under the defined category of LGBTQ, but also blocks the suicide helpline.
These students are not able to access the suicide helpline on their school sanctioned device.
Individual teachers are often not able to unblock permanently, change filters, or allow access in some cases. That's all up to administration. In fact, it's fairly likely that a handful of teachers aren't even aware of this software, as is the case with my school. I'm not even going into depth about who owns these companies, how they make money, the search history and typing they track, collect, and sell, and many other direct violations of privacy. This isn't as big of an issue as it could be for the area I live in, as most people have a reliable secondary device, but if you live in an area where school provides your only access to wifi or technology, please, please look into this. Please contact your administration team, write a petition, download a secondary browser, or anything you're able to do. This is censorship.
