Overseeing Filtering and Monitoring
Evaluating, challenging, and improving your school's technical safeguarding systems.
Evaluating filtering effectiveness
You do not need to be a technical expert, but you do need to ask the right questions. Is your filtering system meeting the DfE's filtering standards? When was it last independently tested? Are there devices or networks in the school that bypass the filter? How quickly are new harmful sites blocked? Your IT provider should be able to answer these questions — if they cannot, that is a concern in itself.
Key takeaway
Ask challenging questions about your filtering system's effectiveness — your IT provider should be able to answer them confidently.
Monitoring and alert systems
Monitoring software can flag concerning online behaviour in real time. Review the alert categories and thresholds regularly to ensure they reflect current risks. Establish a clear process for who reviews alerts, how quickly they are actioned, and how they are recorded. Monitoring is only effective if alerts are reviewed promptly and acted upon consistently.
Key takeaway
Monitoring systems are only as good as the process behind them — ensure alerts are reviewed, actioned, and recorded consistently.