Student Smart Devices Allow Access to Harmful Sites... Gyeongnam Office of Education "Will Improve Access Blocking"

Gyeongnam Office of Education.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] On the 14th, the Gyeongnam Office of Education announced that it will enhance the blocking of access to harmful sites on the smart devices distributed to students.

This is in response to a statement made by Provincial Assembly Member No Chi-hwan during the 399th Provincial Assembly Education Committee meeting the previous day, where he said, “While demonstrating the big data and artificial intelligence platform iTalkTok on the smart devices, we checked whether harmful sites for youth, such as adult content, were blocked, and found that access was possible through a bypass program.”

Assemblyman No pointed out, “Previously, when it was pointed out that games could be played on the smart devices, the Office of Education recalled all 70,000 units with the pilot beta version management program installed, reinstalled the management program, and redistributed them. However, even if access to certain addresses is blocked, bypass programs can be installed, allowing access to any site.”

He further suggested, “Instead of the blacklist method that blocks identified sites, it would be more in line with the purpose of the smart device distribution project to consider applying a whitelist method that only allows access to approved sites.”

The Office of Education emphasized, “The overseas harmful sites accessed by Assemblyman No are designated and blocked by harmful search terms, so they cannot be accessed through search. We confirmed that some overseas harmful sites had not yet been added to the block list and took immediate blocking measures.”

They added, “We block harmful sites based on information announced by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Communications Commission. For real-time management, we utilize our own harmful site investigation and detection functions to update the list daily.”

The Office explained, “The number of harmful sites blocked by the Office of Education is 2,238,596. We apply a policy that blocks blacklists of harmful information to ensure the autonomy and effectiveness of educational use of student smart devices.”

The blocked database includes harmful search terms, harmful sites, and harmful programs such as games, and they also operate a site for applying to block harmful information along with information and communication ethics education.

Regarding the whitelist blocking policy proposed by Assemblyman No, they responded that there have been no reported cases of such policy being adopted by domestic educational institutions.

The Office of Education also clarified the confirmation of access to harmful sites through bypass programs.

“The integrated management system for student smart devices automatically detects and blocks the operation of VPNs and abnormal proxy server access, which are the operating principles of bypass programs,” and “Through a task force for developing harmful information management policies, we plan to analyze the field usability of smart device management policies and conduct user surveys.”

An education office official said, “We will decide on and reflect the direction of smart device management policies and do our best in technical review and preparation so that any necessary improvements can be promptly implemented.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.