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Quote »Defense Department Blocks Some Web SitesBy ROBERT WELLER, The Associated Press2007-05-14 07:52:23.0DENVER -Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell."This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall. The Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis.But the new rules mean many military personnel won't be able to watch those achievements - at least not on military computers.If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine."This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.Several companies have instituted similar bans, saying recreational sites drain productivity.---Army memo:http://tinyurl.com/2x2qkafrom http://www.examiner.com/a-7266....html

yeah this isn't going to affect me because i'm not using the DOD bandwidth. I'm not using my government account to access websites here. Actually they just upgraded our wireless internet access here and I can now access Photobucket because it's faster.

yep, i'm surprised they haven't started this long ago!

I am not a fan of it. I understand thier thinking, but when I was in Iraq, Myspace was the #1 way to keep in touch with family members back home, and photobucket was the #1 way to see pictures of family and friends, and give them pictures showing you were safe.I do understand the arguement, and agree at times, photobucket and myspace are "abused" over there, and other places in the Military. But it's like most things.... it can be a great thing or a bad thing depending on how it's used. Anything could be harmful if misused.... look at guns, they can cause all sorts of problems.... but at times they have saved lives, fed families, been used for recreation and enjoyment.... they can be a good thing, or a bad thing.Over all, I think this will be hurting the soldiers and families more than helping. But that is my little opinion.

Also, I think this title should be changed, I agree with what it says, lol.... but I didn't know what it was about and made a different thread on the same topic (Millster caught me and told me).... I bet alot more opinions would be out there if we had a different title

Quote, originally posted by Vibr8tr »Also, I think this title should be changed, I agree with what it says, lol.... but I didn't know what it was about and made a different thread on the same topic (Millster caught me and told me).... I bet alot more opinions would be out there if we had a different titleRight you are. And it's been done.

I guess the air force is way ahead of other services. We've been blocking just about everything since '03. Name any fun site and it's blocked. Sites that have certain keywords are also blocked - "race, medical, chat, certain forum software, slang, games, shopping, crime, attire, opinion, weapons, Al Gore, to only name a few. On top of that all streaming media, flash, java language and activescript is blocked as well. It wont be long until our internet access goes all text-based!