Freedom of Information request - Child Safety on the Internet

From Mrs A Fitzsimons - [FOI #21591 email]

Dear Sir or Madam,

This request relates to the safe use of the Internet by Primary and

Secondary School pupils in your region.

Resources:

1. The Byron Review, published 27 March 2008,

2. The Byron Review Action Plan, published 24th June 2008.

The resources above relate to the safety and education of children

using the Internet at Home and School, and the responsibility of

government, local and national to ensure that children are educated

and protected whilst doing so.

I hereby request under the Freedom of Information Act full details

of the Internet Safety Actions and Initiatives currently in place

throughout the region.

Formal response from Lincolnshire County Council

1. Internet Safety Education provided as part of the school curriculum.

- Within your schools is there a specific program aimed at teaching

children about staying safe online, including cyber bullying been

integrated into the curriculum?

- If yes, who is responsible for delivery and what

accreditations/training have they received? For example, teacher,

CEOP trained ambassador.

- If yes, how often is internet safety training integrated into the

school curriculum, i.e. weekly, monthly etc

- If no, what steps/timeframes are being taken for implementation?

Currently there are two educational programs being utilised in schools across the county, both part of the national Think U Know initiative produced by CEOP.

Secondary schools in Lincolnshire have access to the Think U Know presentation, a 45 minute discussion based assembly. This is made available through the Neighbourhood Policing Teams local to the school. There are currently 159 individuals working in the Neighbourhood Policing Teams who are able to deliver this presentation package throughout the whole of Lincolnshire.

Additionally there are 87 CEOP trained individuals working with young people in a variety of volunteer based organisations and LCC employees who work with targeted groups.

Each Neighbourhood Policing Team maintains a list of local schools who have received the Think U Know presentation.

Currently e-safety is not taught as part of the National Curriculum. A recent initiative has seen every school nominate a member of the Senior Management Team or a member of staff with pastoral care responsibilities to be designated the school e-safety officer. E-safety policy, training and education remains the responsibility of each establishment with guidance and advice available from Lincolnshire County Council.

2. Internet Filtering

- Do the primary and secondary schools within your authority have

internet filtering in place?

- If yes, what tools do you use? For example Hardware or Software?

- If yes, what is the name of your internet filtering supplier and

when was their contract last renewed/due for renewal?

All schools in Lincolnshire, both primary and secondary, have their internet connection filtered. The majority of schools in Lincolnshire use the County Council provided internet filtering solution Netsweeper which is provided at no cost to the school. This service is managed by Mouchel and is renewable annually on 1 April. The Netsweeper hardware is installed at County Offices through which all internet requests are filtered. Schools retain the right to adopt and formulate their own filtering policies using this software. The specific product, Netsweeper is reviewed periodically and if at any time the service does match required standards then remedial action would be taken including consideration of an alternative product.

A small minority of schools still choose to use their own filtering solution rather than taking the services offered centrally. In such cases, responsibility and cost of system provision passes to the head teacher and governors of each establishment.

3. Internet Filtering Breaches

- Have any of the Schools within the past 24 months experienced a

breach of Internet Filtering where children were able to access

pornography or Indecent images. Please provide details of School

Type(Primary or Secondary), Date of Breach and Type of Unsuitable

material accessed.

- If a breach of security occurred how was your authority notified?

For example, by a parent, by the school, through an automated alert

provided by hardware/software supplier.

Netsweeper was purchased and implemented in April 2008 as part of a core service offered to schools. Both Netsweeper and the previous filtering tools subscribe to the Internet Watch Foundation `blacklist', a list of known and suspected illegal websites. Staff and students are unable to view these blacklisted websites when using the internet in Lincolnshire Schools.

Lincolnshire County Council has been formally notified on 7 different occasions with regards to breaches of internet filtering by children. On each occasion this notification has been through the Helpdesk. The following page, compiled from service records, gives further details of these breaches and correcting actions taken.