You might be sitting at school trying to play games, only to find your school’s internet system blocks every one of them! However, these systems are not perfect. Unblocked games do exist, though they are becoming increasingly harder to find.
One of the main ways schools to block websites is by simple ‘filters.’ These filters contain a list of blocked sites and keywords. The idea is to block the user from accessing a site if the URL is on the ‘blocked’ site list, or if the site contains certain keywords (such as ‘online games’ or something similar).
These systems are still in place today, and are generally highly effective. Because the internet is well over a decade old, this has allowed these filtering systems to build up huge lists of blocked sites and become far more intelligent at detecting bad key words. So doing something predictable to this system, like searching for ‘free online games,’ is probably fruitless.
Worse still, if your school does not have java or flash installed – two main programming systems used to run internet games – most internet games will be off-limits to you.
If your school has flash and java, though, remember that the filtering systems cannot block all games websites. For example, the system may miss off some intricate keywords. You will have to keep trying to search the internet at school for complex key words, or make a list of games at home to try at school.
Also, when searching for a games website at school, it’s likely the school’s system will have scanned Google, Yahoo, Bing, and so on and gone through the games websites on the search engine results pages, blocking them. If you try an obscure search engine, though, such search engines may contain uncommon sites the school could not pick up in the mainstream search engines.
However, the mainstream search engines are not useless. You can use them to try finding new games websites that may not be on the school’s site filter yet. Go on Google and search for ‘online games’ or something similar, then click the “Past 24 hours” option on the left of the search engine results page. This search result tracks any site that has been updated within a day, and you might find some newly-established games websites on it.
We have a fresh list of game websites not yet blocked by schools right here.
Another alternative is to try finding JavaScript games. Type ‘JavaScript games’ into a search engine. Your school is less likely to block any sites with JavaScript games, but, on the downside, JavaScript games are much simpler than flash and java ones. You will likely find games like hangman and Tetris.
Another option is to try playing an educational game. Some are boring, some may be surprisingly fun. Your school is far less likely to block educational games than normal games. For example, teachers sometimes use educational games to help teach, or as a cool-down at the end of the lesson.
