Child Safety on the Internet

Dear Mrs Fitzsimons

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, received by us on 22
October.

Our twenty working day deadline for your request is 19 November 2009 and
we aim to respond as soon as possible within the time period.

You will be informed in advance if there is a charge for supplying
copies of the information. We will also provide an explanation if any
information is not released to you. If the requested information
contains references to any third parties, we may need to consult with
them before deciding whether or not to release the information.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to
contact us at [Norfolk County Council request email] .

Yours sincerely

Matthew Smith
Corporate Freedom of Information and Data Protection Unit
Norfolk County Council

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Dear Mrs Fitzsimons,

With reference to your request of October 19, in which you asked for full
details of the Internet Safety Actions and Initiatives currently in place
throughout the region.

our response is as follows:

With reference to the review 'Safe use of the Internet by Primary and
Secondary School pupils ' (The Byron Review), published 27 March 2008, and
the Byron Review Action Plan, published 24th June 2008.

The information supplied relates only to Norfolk, and not to the Eastern
Region as a whole.

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?

There is a Children's Services e- Safety group which has representatives
from safe guarding, advisory service, HR, and ICT Solutions. This group
has developed a Children's Services e - Safety toolkit with policy,
guidance, and training. This is part of the curriculum.

- If yes, who is responsible for delivery and what accreditations/training
have they received? For example, teacher, CEOP trained ambassador.

This group covers the whole school community e - Safety including pupils.
Training for the teachers is delivered via the advisory service in
partnership with E2BN (The East of England Broadband Network), Child Net
International, Child Exploitation and Online Protection, and the Local
Safeguarding Children's Board.

- If yes, how often is internet safety training integrated into the school
curriculum, i.e. weekly, monthly etc

Schools decide how to integrate this into the curriculum.  There are
different ways of doing this and schools use a range of teaching plans and
subject areas, therefore Norfolk County Council would not be in a position
to answer this question.  We have assisted schools in the production of
example schemes of work for some subjects and key stages.

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

As above, this is a matter for individual schools.  We have developed an
audit to support schools in establishing good processes and a sound
curriculum offer. Here is a link to all Norfolk schools.

2. Internet Filtering

- Do the primary and secondary schools within your authority have internet
filtering in place?

Yes

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

Proxy server appliances; network monitoring application:
Centralised Bluecoat appliances with school based filtering caches
Securus e - safety network monitoring

- If yes, what is the name of your internet filtering supplier and when
was their contract last renewed/due for renewal?

Supplied as part of an overall contract with BT, due for renewal March
2014

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.

Yes, as the Internet has thousands of new inappropriate sites created
every day, no filtering system would totally eradicate the possibility of
this happening unless we restricted the Internet to specific known sites
only (locked down specific white list) which would then stifle teaching
and learning and the ability for innovation. However, all filtering caches
are updated on a daily basis, and we have the ability to have any new
sites reported to us blocked within 1 hour. We also monitor all traffic on
the Norfolk wide area network and respond accordingly to inappropriate
URLS, data types, and security threats. The incidents recorded for the
past 24 months are listed on the attached table.

- 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.

Automated alerts, the school.

I believe that our response meets the requirements of your request, but if
you are dissatisfied with it or with our handling of your request, you
have the right of appeal through the Council's internal complaints
procedure by setting out the grounds of your appeal in writing to the
Freedom of Information Officer at:

Freedom of Information & Data Protection Unit
The Archive Centre
Martineau Lane
Norwich NR1 2DQ

e-mail: [1][Norfolk County Council request email]
Telephone: 01603 222661

If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the complaints procedure, you may
apply to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a
decision whether your request for information has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of Part I of the Act. Contact details as
follows:-

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone 01625 545 700
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

<<Internet filtering breaches 2008.pdf>>

Norfolk County Council - a four star authority.

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