Schools and many workplaces prohibit the use of certain websites on their servers. Proxy websites are web pages that allow the user to browse blocked websites by passing the users' web request onto other servers on the Internet, thus bypassing their own Internet provider. Schools typically have content filters that flag unauthorized websites. The proxy website is a secret route that allows the user to view banned online content without disclosing the URL to the filtering product.

Why Schools Block Websites
Schools in the United States must abide by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), a federal law enacted by Congress in 2000 to protect children using school, college and library computers from offensive Internet content. Student's web use must be monitored and all obscene, harmful and pornographic content must be blocked. In addition, schools monitor student web usage to ensure that their Internet time is being used for educational purposes and common distractions are banned. Aside from pornographic websites, some of the most commonly blocked websites for schools include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, email accounts and various gaming websites.

Why Schools Block Proxy Websites
There are many reasons why schools deem it necessary to block proxy websites. These reasons include: proxy website abuse, various legal reasons (including losing e-rate funding if they do not comply with the CIPA), cyberbullying, malware and phishing and password theft.

Detecting Proxy Websites
The most frequently used proxy websites are easy for school IT departments to find. Often schools use secure Internet gateway products along with Internet filtering and reporting solutions. IT departments also keep a close eye on websites that are reoccurring. The most common proxy websites spread by word of mouth and show up as answers in searches conducted on search engines. Therefore, just as any user can search for a free proxy, often times IT departments will conduct their own Internet searches for the newest proxies in order to control proxy website abuse.

Common Proxy Websites
Reoccurring proxy websites are the most likely to be blocked by schools. It is impossible to say which proxies a school has blocked, as it is on a school by school basis and depends on many factors, including: how strict the school is on Internet safety and the most frequently visited proxies at that particular school.

Faceoxy and Facebook Oxy are two websites that target users that want to access Facebook. However, the websites do not limit the user's searches to Facebook only. With easy to remember names, these two proxies are widely visited in the proxy community.

TNT Proxy and ProxyBin allows users access to MySpace among other websites.

YoutubeProxy targets users that wish to view videos on YouTube.

SpySurfing Web Proxy, Proxy For Fun, Browse007, SchoolisGood, and PolySolve are more proxy websites that are frequented by users trying to get around blocked websites on school premises.