Online Safety
Filtering and Monitoring
The Department for Education’s statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ obliges schools and colleges in England to “ensure appropriate filters and appropriate monitoring systems are in place and regularly review their effectiveness” and they “should be doing all that they reasonably can to limit children’s exposure to [Content, Contact, Conduct, Contract] risks from the school’s or college’s IT system” however, schools will need to “be careful that “over blocking” does not lead to unreasonable restrictions as to what children can be taught with regards to online teaching and safeguarding.”
Schools in England and Wales are also required “to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school, including by establishing appropriate levels of filtering”. Furthermore, it expects that they “assess the risk of [their] children being drawn into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology”.
Content filtering works by applying specific parameters to content retrieved via the internet, restricting access to certain materials on websites, Apps, emails or other suspicious items. It can be a hardware or software solution and can often be part of a firewall setting.
Monitoring, combined with content filtering, alerts for any activities that need to be acted upon, but the information is also used to determine which sites and keywords need to be filtered out. For example, if a new craze appears, the monitoring and filtering system will help us know what associated terms the children are searching for, and what websites they are accessing.
Parents can be reassured that at Isham we employ the highest quality filtering and monitoring systems to mitigate the risks of our children's online safety. The school uses Securly, as its filtering system, employing a continuously updated series of keywords and watchwords to filter the content of the internet from any of the machines within the school system.
Securly is a web filter used in UK primary schools to help parents monitor their children's online activity at school and at home. It's designed to keep children safe online by blocking inappropriate content and identifying suspicious activity.
How does Securly work?
- Filters content: Securly blocks inappropriate content and monitors for suspicious activity
- Analyses activity: Securly uses AI to analyse student activity, including searches, social media posts, and emails
- Identifies issues: Securly looks for signs of bullying, self-harm, and suicide risk
- Alerts users: Securly sends alerts to designated safeguarding leads so they can take action
- Provides reports: Securly provides weekly email snapshots of a child's online activity
Children will be asked to explore an increasingly wide range of websites and digital content and will be required to use search engines to develop their skills as a digital citizen - using these systems of filtering and monitoring we feel secure in exploring the online world, giving us opportunities to learn about online risks as we progress through school.
Online Safety in school
Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Isham. Online Safety is taught to all children, explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.
Please remember to apply appropriate settings to children's devices when they are using the internet at home or on mobile devices. Please refer to advice and guidance to ensure children's devices are appropriately managed.
Children are aware of the potential dangers online and are educated on how to use the internet safely. Every child also signs an age-appropriate acceptable use policy so that we know they have read and understood our school's rules on staying safe.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the Online Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
Online Safety Tips for parents
The internet and ever emerging technologies have changed our lives drastically. As parents and carers, there is a whole new world of possibility and also of risk to be aware of. Keeping your children safe is a huge responsibility, to help you be the very best parents you can be here are some simple things you can do to keep up with what your child is doing online and ensure that they are keeping themselves safe.
Talk to your child about what they’re up to online. Be a part of their online life; involve the whole family and show an interest. Find out what sites they visit and what they love about them, if they know you understand they are more likely to come to you if they have any problems.
- Watch Thinkuknow films and cartoons with your child. The Thinkuknow site has films, games and advice for children from five all the way to 16.
- Encourage your child to go online and explore! There is a wealth of age-appropriate sites online for your children.
- Encourage them to use sites which are fun, educational and that will help them to develop online skills.
- Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online. Children grow up fast and they will be growing in confidence and learning new skills daily. It’s important that as your child learns more, so do you.
- Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world. Think about what they might see, what they share, who they talk to and how long they spend online. It is important to discuss boundaries at a young age to develop the tools and skills children need to enjoy their time online.
- Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space. For children of this age, it is important to keep internet use in family areas so you can see the sites your child is using and be there for them if they stumble across something they don’t want to see.
- Know what connects to the internet and how. Nowadays even the TV connects to the internet. Make sure you’re aware of which devices that your child uses connect to the internet, such as their phone or games console. Also, find out how they are accessing the internet – is it your connection, or a neighbour’s wifi? This will affect whether the safety setting you set are being applied.
- Use parental controls on devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones. Parental controls are not just about locking and blocking, they are a tool to help you set appropriate boundaries as your child grows and develops. They are not the answer to your child’s online safety, but they are a good start and they are not as difficult to install as you might think. Service providers are working hard to make them simple, effective and user friendly. Click here to find your service provider and learn how to set your controls.
This NSPCC link provides excellent information on the age restrictions and expert guidance on the risk of apps and websites children may be using.
Here are some resources that parents may find useful
https://www.internetmatters.org/schools-esafety/parent-online-support-pack-teachers/
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
Caught in the Web
Caught in the Web is a Newsround special programme all about staying safe on the internet. The show, which is voiced by David Tennant, tells the story of a girl called Lost Princess, who gets into danger after meeting someone in a chatroom. It also has many tips on how to be safe, and case studies of children with real-life experiences of how things can go wrong.
