Often this is in conjunction with PREVENT, with the aim of nipping extremism in the bud. From experience, we can advise that authorities take a fairly dim view of schools being unable to provide this kind of information. For this reason, it’s important to consider what your web filter is logging.
- Are all requests authenticated?
- Are all requests logged, including video and image assets – or just the domain?
- Are these logs stored in an appropriate location?
- Are these logs stored in an industry standard format like JSON?
- Are logs kept intact, or is anything discarded to save space?
It’s not essential that these questions are all answered in the affirmative, but before considering a new supplier, it’s sensible to ask them.
Not only is it important that your filter logging is sufficient to satisfy law enforcement enquiries, it’s also good to have an array of information at your fingertips. Possible safeguarding issues should be alerted – but there’s also a need for trend reporting, and perhaps an end of week roundup on problem categories like self-harm and radicalisation. A high-quality education focussed filter will help you access the information your colleagues need to do the job of protecting the young people in the school.
If you have a question or would like to learn more about the UK’s No.1 Web Filter, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to help.
