The BBC is covering some news this morning about social networking bans in the UK (not sure if others are covering it too).

Employees should have access to social networking websites such as Facebook during office hours, the TUC has said.

Some firms have blocked workers’ access to the sites, or disciplined staff for misuse of the internet.

However, the union organisation says it is unreasonable to try to stop staff from having a life outside work and suggests setting guidelines instead.

Employment Law Advisory Services, which provides advice for employers, said access should be for business use only.

The TUC said employers were entitled to stop people using the sites during the working day but there should not be a total ban.

Staff should be able to use their time during lunch breaks to contact friends on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, it added.

As we all know, lunch-time spreads into work time, so where do you draw the line?
Peter Mooney
Employment Law Advisory Services

General secretary Brendan Barber said: “Simply cracking down on use of new web tools like Facebook is not a sensible solution to a problem, which is only going to get bigger.

“It’s unreasonable for employers to try to stop their staff from having a life outside work, just because they can’t get their heads around the technology.

“Better to invest a little time in working out sensible conduct guidelines, so that there don’t need to be any nasty surprises for staff or employers.”

‘Not playtime’

But Peter Mooney, of Employment Law Advisory Services, said the TUC’s call was “nonsense”.

“Why should employers pay for the privilege of allowing their employees to access Facebook, MySpace or Bebo from work computers whether in an employee’s lunch-time or not?

“The lunch break may not be a paid break but there is still a cost. As we all know, lunch-time spreads into work time, so where do you draw the line?

“Employers do not prevent employees from having a life outside work - which means after work when employees are quite free to access all the websites they wish from their own computers.”

Access to the internet at work was “not an extension of playtime”, he added.

‘Works well’

Chris Reed from corporate communications company Fishburn Hedges told BBC News that Facebook helped keep his workforce happy.

“We let people exercise their own discretion and make people responsible for their own actions. That seems to work very well,” he said.

In one case, Kent County Council banned its 32,000 employees from using Facebook.

The local authority said the move was an effort to reduce time-wasting.

(source)

While this is very good, they forgot to mention that you can still access facebook at work even if it is banned by your boss - by using web proxies! Although I can see the reason behind prevent access to websites at work, sometimes it hinders your work - for example finding photos of banned words (i’ve heard of words like “gun” being filtered).

If you need to find a web proxy to use to get around your work (or school) filters, use this site to find one. Just go to our best proxies list!

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Todays free web proxy to get on sites like Myspace, Friendstar, Bebo, Facebook and more when they’re blocked is You Are Hidden. Although its name implies it is more about hiding your identity online, its description (As given by the proxy site owner) shows they also are obviously heavily leaned to helping people get on social networking sites like Myspace, bebo, friendstar, facebook etc when your local network bans it.

“You Are Hidden… A proxy built for speed and usability. Works for MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and all other sites.”

The design of You Are Hidden is quite nice and and it is very easy to use. It has links set up to automatically go to the proxified versions of Myspace, Facebook, AddictingGames, and Friendstar (saving you time so you don’t have to type in the urls). Using You Are Hidden helps you get on any site (not just myspace/facebook/addictinggames) even if it is blocked at work/school. The proxy site also has a “mirrors” page full of proxy mirrors so if you are hidden isn’t working (but you can somehow access the mirrors page) you can find further web proxies to use. There are not many ads (at least, not any “in the way”) on the site, and if you need news there is also a fair amount of news at the bottom of the page. If you need a new proxy today I would reccommend using You Are Hidden.

Check them out here.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Check out “hidsurf.info” - another great free web proxy

Here is their description of their free web proxy:

Welcome to Hidsurf.info, we allow you to bypass restricted sites at work, school or college, including unblocking sites like MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and plenty more! The best thing is that we are free and simple to use, so check it out and tell your friends!

visit the proxy

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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This is a very pretty site that also seems quite fast. Here is the description of the proxy:

Proxy is nothing more than a server mirroring a webpage so you can see it without accessing the website itself. This has many advantages. First of all, you have increased privacy. Servers usually keep track of who visits them. When using a proxy nobody will ever know what you visit online. Proxies are capable of keeping you totally anonymous from hackers and logs.

There are tens of thousands of proxies out there. They are becoming increasingly popular because of their benefits. It is true that some proxies are better than others so knowing what a proxy is and what to set as an standard is pretty useful.

The proxy works very well, and is worth a visit if you need to bypass some websites or get added privacy. Check it out here.

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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You can use “nethider” to get around myspace blocks, site filters, etc. Here is what they say about it:

Don’t loose any chance of enjoyment. Just browse My space ,ORkut site freely. Free and fastest proxy site for you.

Visit the site at nethider.info.

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Although this proxy seems to have some problems with its SSL certificate, it does seem to work. It may even be an advantage - a secure proxy, as it may never (or at least, less chance of) get blocked due to its https:// protocol.

It has many many links to other sites on it - all proxy sites - so you can find other web proxies on there too. The proxy is very good at allowing you to bypass school filters and access and unblock myspace, facebook, youtube and other sites that schools often block.

Check them out - https://www.xp1.info/.

(No Ratings Yet)

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Can be quite handy from time to time to get a list, like this site, of working web proxies. They can be used to get around filters on facebook, view blocked netlog sites, see xanga.com sites, get around firewall filters for linkedin, view friends reunited through a proxy or another site, or view the photos on piczo incase it is not allowed to be viewed at your school, college, or workplace

Hottest Proxy Sites is the one I currently use to find out about other web proxies.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Wokos, even with its odd name, is a great web proxy that helps you get around website filters. Here is their description of their proxy:

Wokos is a weird proxy to help you bypass those stupid filters that stop you from accessing sites at school, work or even at home, wokos is safe to use and currently runs on fast servers.

I am not too sure why they say that they’re a weird proxy, but it is certainly a web proxy that works to get onto websites that have been banned, filtered or blocked, like Myspace, broadcaster.com, netlog and bebo on most school/work servers and networks.

Check them out - Wokos.

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Last.fm is “the social music revolution” and is one of my favourite websites. However, a lot of companies, universities, colleges and school ban all web access to last.fm. They use firewalls, web filtering software, net nannys, and site blockers in an attempt to stop you from slacking. But I always say that you work better when listening to music, anyway, so its quite handy there are ways to use sites like proxy sites (sometimes called proxy avoidance websites) to still gain access and view blocked sites.

Check out our list of best web proxies (at the top) to find out a proxy that will work with last.fm and other filtered websites.

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Classmates.com is a very popular social network, but like many social networks schools, colleges, work places, unis and other organisations ban or block access to classmates. Of course, in their eyes, this is for good reason - it makes you more productive. But what if you need to get onto classmates.com but you can’t due to your computer behind a firewall blocking access, a web filtering software program that stops you from getting on certain sites, or some other site blocker?

A web proxy works by acting as a relay server in between you and classmates.com, so even if classmates.com is banned, a web proxy can retrieve the site for you and then send that page to you, through its own site. Don’t worry - its easier than it sounds to use a proxy to get around web filters.

Well you use a proxy to get around this problem. Check out our best web proxies list for our list of web proxies that work and will let you get onto classmates.com.

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