Online Safety
Having spent three days in the last week doing various aspects of child protection training, it is a subject that has been on my mind a lot during the last week. I completed my CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) Ambassador training yesterday which allows me to deliver the excellent ThinkUKnow materials to both staff and students. To coincide with Safer Internet Day 2009 on 10 February , CEOP will also be releasing some excellent new training materials for parents, designed to be used to make parents more aware of new technologies and how their children may be putting themselves at risk if they are unaware of the potential risks and dangers of using these technologies. The video below is one of the resources that CEOP will be using to raise parental awareness of how to ensure children do not put themselves at risk on the internet;
One of the questions raised yesterday during my training was the issue of filtering. Being a government organisation and because of the potentially damaging situation that would arise if there was ever a problem, CEOP do not recommend a filtering package to schools. I am not an advocate of the way in which filtering systems are often used in schools, although I do understand why many schools use filters to ensure that the most inappropriate content is not accessible from school computers. I think that this is sensible precaution to prevent the most inappropriate content being accessible. However, as anybody involved in this aspect of ICT management in a secondary school will know, students often see school filtering systems as a challenge to be overcome using proxy anonmisers or other means. The issue of filtering can also hinder teaching and learning as sites like You Tube often fall foul of filtering systems and are blocked due to inappropriate content. It is largely for these reasons that I am an advocate of education over blocking. I’m pretty sure we all do things at home on the internet that we would not dream of doing at work – booking holidays, buying clothes, downloading music, watching videos on You Tube, the weekly shop, the list goes on….
Some of the Grids for Learning can provide schools with forensic software to allow tracing of inappropriate use, and this software can either overtly or covertly send screenshots and log user details sending it to a system administrator. Educating students about appropriate use and having safeguards like this in place is certainly an alternative to filtering out large parts of the internet because they match a particular keyword.
Another point that was raised was the fact that many students have mobile phones in school capable of and probably also connected to the internet during the school day. This means that many secondary students particularly will have access to unfiltered internet in school anyway, and there is no way to police or track where students are going on these devices – so surely this is a battle that cannot be won purely by placing filters to block anything students can misuse.
There are so many issues surrounding online safety that I cannot possibly hope to cover everything here, and the view from CEOP is that children and students are becoming much more internet savvy than they were just 2 years ago. Apparently child sex offenders are finding it harder to make contact and develop online relationships, but were also quick to point out that this just means that they try harder. Some worrying trends were highlighted concerning the amount of information that young people make freely available on social networking sites – it is not uncommon for teenagers to give full address, mobile phone number, photos of friends and themselves, the school they attend and the names of family members. One demonstration using a social networking site showed that from three pieces of information, first name and sister’s first name, and parents first names that by finding her sister’s page on the same site by clicking on her photo it was possible to get a bit more information. A quick trip to the government census website and the officer had a home address and then by searching for local schools had identified the girl’s school from the school badge in some of the photos from the social networking site. Google Maps provided photos of the house and school, and the officer had a pretty complete profile. Whilst this is obviously a slightly scary example, and the officer knew what he was doing, it was also obvious how easy it is to build a profile of a person from information freely available on the internet. In the wrong hands, the consequences could be very serious!
I work with young people everyday, and I am a keen advocate of the benefits that using technology in the classroom can have on achievement, enagagement and learning. The internet also has a powerful part to play, as many web 2.0 technologies are now delivering the kinds of engagement and opportunities that a few years ago people could only dream about. Personally, I cannot imagine my life without the internet and nor would I want to. As educators though, I do feel we have an important role to play in helping young people and their parents to engage with technology safely. How many children have a computer in their room with open access to the internet and parents who do not fully understand what their children do on the internet for hours on end? Advice from CEOP included making sure computers are in public areas of the home, that children do not have full admin rights on the computer, up to date anti virus software is installed, and that perhaps parents use one of the many products designed to limit access to the internet of which K9 (http://www1.k9webprotection.com) is just one. Clearly the most important thing though is that parents know what children are doing on the internet, who they are talking to online, and which sites they are visiting.
Education and adequate training for all adults involved in the care of children, and responsible education for children are important factors in a successful approach to e-safety. This remains one of the key priorities for both BECTA and CEOP and, as internet usage looks set to continue to rise in our schools, is clearly a key aspect of ensuring children are able to interact with technology in the classroom in an appropriate manner. I read a fabulous blog post yesterday regarding duty of care and online safety (http://mrsw.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/in-loco-parentis-by-any-other-name) which reasoned that responsible professionals should be allowed to make professional judgements about the suitability of online resources. If teachers and students are adequately educated with regard to online safety and parents have been made aware of the schools’ acceptable usage policy with regard to use of the internet, why should a teacher not be allowed to use resources from a site like you tube if in their professional judgement those resources will enhance the understanding of their students. Mrs. W put it like this “Would education authorities deny a PE teacher access to trampolines citing “duty of care”? Would they deny a Chemistry teacher access to sulphuric acid citing “duty of care”? Would they deny a Modern Studies teacher access to (often) harrowing material on human rights abuses citing “duty of care”? Of course not, so why should these same professionals be deemed incapable of making a professional judgement when it comes to accessing online resources?”. I think that argument is a very persuasive one.
My personal feeling is that many schools would rather err on the side of caution, and have a restrictive internet service rather than risk any potentially difficult situations, but I feel this is rather like burying your head in the sand and hoping the issues will resolve themselves. As discussed earlier, many students are far more technically able than teachers and sometimes even school technical staff, and see filtering as a challenge to be overcome or get frustrated as sites are blocked and their internet experience is far more limited than they are used to at home. Maybe it is time the government laid down clear guidelines, and ensured that all teachers are given adequate training in these areas. Perhaps it could be built into the child protection which is mandatory.
I am certain of some things however;
- The internet is not going to go away!
- Filtering in schools alone will not deal with all the issues around keeping children safe online.
- Responsible professionals should be allowed to make their own judgements about resources most suitable to help their students learn.
- Online safety is the responsible of teachers, schools, local authorities and PARENTS.
- People responsible for children working with technology should be given adequate training to educate children about staying safe online and responsible use of the internet.
Links
CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre) http://www.ceop.gov.uk/
BECTA E-Safety guidance http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=is
Thinkuknow website http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
