DfE Filtering and Monitoring Standards
Safeguard students and staff from potentially harmful, inappropriate online material.
Wavenet Education
Assign roles to manage filtering and monitoring systems
For effective filtering and monitoring systems to be delivered and maintained, clear roles, responsibilities and strategies are vital to define. It’s important to ensure the right people are working collaboratively, using their professional expertise to make informed decisions. They should include members of your Senior Leadership Team (SLT), Governors, Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and IT support, to ensure effective delivery.
Governing bodies and proprietors have overall strategic responsibility for filtering and monitoring, so they need assurance that standards are being met. There may not be full-time staff to take on these roles, responsibility may lie as part of a wider role within your school or college, but you must be clear who is responsible, and it must be possible to make prompt changes to your provision as and when required.
Review filtering and monitoring provisions
For filtering and monitoring to be effective it should meet the needs of students and staff, reflecting your specific use of technology while minimising potential harms. Considerations should include the risk profile of your students, their age, any special educational needs and disability (SEND), and those with English as an additional language (EAL).
To understand and evaluate the changing needs and potential risks of your school or college, you should review your filtering and monitoring provision at least once a year. Any additional checks will be informed by the review process. This will allow governing bodies and proprietors to have assurance that systems are working effectively and meeting safeguarding obligations.
Effective monitoring strategies
Monitoring user activity on school and college devices is an important part of providing a safe environment for students and staff. Unlike filtering, monitoring does not stop users from accessing material through internet searches or software. For monitoring to be effective, it must be able to pick up incidents urgently, usually through alerts or observations, allow you to take prompt action, and record the outcome. Incidents could be a malicious, technical, or safeguarding nature. It should be clear to all staff how best to deal with these incidents and who should lead on any actions.
Your monitoring strategy should be informed by the filtering and monitoring review you carry out. A variety of monitoring strategies may be required to minimise safeguarding risks. This could include staff watching the screens of users, live supervision on a console with device management software, network monitoring using log files of internet traffic and web access, and individual device monitoring through software or third-party services. All monitoring procedures must to be reflected in your Acceptable Use Policy and integrated into relevant online safety, safeguarding, and organizational policies.
Block harmful, inappropriate content
Having an active, well managed filtering system is vital for providing a safe learning environment. No filtering system can be 100% effective. You need to understand the coverage your system provides, any limitations it has, and mitigate accordingly to minimise harm and meet the statutory requirements of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) and the Prevent duty.
It should be clear what your filtering system blocks or allows and why. Effective filtering systems should block internet access to harmful sites and inappropriate content, but not unreasonably impact teaching and learning or restrict students from learning how to assess and manage risks themselves.
Wavenet’s Key Recommendations
Every educational institution faces the challenge of keeping students safe without compromising their ability to access a rich and dynamic learning environment. With Wavenet, we can help you adhere to DfE’s Filtering and Monitoring standards, safeguarding your students by blocking inappropriate content and websites, as well as monitoring usage, without restricting their freedom to explore and learn.
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