FOI request: Digital monitoring

The request was partially successful.

Dear Chesterfield College,

Under the terms of the FOI Act 2000, I request the following information.

I am researching the use of “safety tech”, digital monitoring tools (software and services that monitor children’s online and offline activity) in UK schools. Please can you provide the following information.

Please break out total numbers annually, by your academic year or calendar year depending on the information you have available, since 2015 (the most recent 5 years) or since you began use, if less than five years ago:

1. Which company and product you use for this (for example Impero, NetSupport DNA, Smoothwall etc)

2. How many alerts in total were generated annually. Please provide the total number and grouped by (a) severity, ie 750 high level alerts and (b) how many by which category type i.e 250 self harm, 250 bullying, 250 extremism etc.

3. For how many children in total, the alerts (in 2) were created.

4. For how many children a photograph was taken (triggered in the alert process by the child’s device webcam for example.)

5.Confirm how many referrals for how many children in total were made (from your pupils on roll) to the Prevent programme (annual totals).

6. Please confirm (a) whether or not such monitoring has been operational on digital activity while pupils are at home in lockdown and (b) numbers of alerts if known separately for the lockdown periods versus not.

7. Please provide a current copy of the policy that explains the use of such a system to the child and/or family.

8. How many staff or others currently, have access to the information generated about pupils from the system (ie 5, two DSLs, 2 network staff, 1 Head plus x number of the company staff can view the alerts generated).

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jen Persson

Dear Chesterfield College,

I would be grateful if you can reply to this request after half term and let me know by when in June you can .

Thank you.
Sincerely,

Jen Persson

Data Protection Team, Chesterfield College

1 Attachment

Below is the list of questions that are raised as part of the FOI request for Defend Digital Me.

Please break out total numbers annually, by your academic year or calendar year depending on the information you have available, since 2015 (the most recent 5 years) or since you began use, if less than five years ago:

1. Which company and product you use for this (for example Impero, NetSupport DNA, Smoothwall etc)? Answer: Smoothwall

2. How many alerts in total were generated annually? Answer: Unknown - log retention is 30 days. Alerts are passed to the Safeguarding Team for investigation. Due to the way we collect and report on safeguarding concerns we cannot establish the original source without a staff member reviewing every individual referral. We do not have staff capacity to complete this task.

Please provide the total number and grouped by (a) severity, i.e. 750 high level alerts and (b) how many by which category type i.e. 250 self harm, 250 bullying, 250 extremism etc. Answer: Unknown - due to the way we collect and report on this dataset we cannot establish the original source without a staff member reviewing every individual referral. We do not have staff capacity to complete this task.

3. For how many children in total, the alerts (in 2) were created? Answer: Unknown as above.

4. For how many children a photograph was taken (triggered in the alert process by the child’s device webcam for example.) Answer: The system does not take photographs.

5.Confirm how many referrals for how many children in total were made (from your pupils on roll) to the Prevent programme (annual totals). Answer listed per academic year: 15/16- 1; 16/17- 2; 17/18 - 3; 18/19 – 1; 19/20 - 4

6. Please confirm
(a) whether or not such monitoring has been operational on digital activity while pupils are at home in lockdown and
(b) numbers of alerts if known separately for the lockdown periods versus not.
Answer: (a) The monitoring is of the college network, we do not monitor students’ digital activity on their home network. (b) N/A

7. Please provide a current copy of the policy that explains the use of such a system to the child and/or family. Answer: Policy attached.

8. How many staff or others currently, have access to the information generated about pupils from the system (ie 5, two DSLs, 2 network staff, 1 Head plus x number of the company staff can view the alerts generated). Answer: 2 DSL’s and 2 Safeguarding Officers have access to the web filtering reports, which are monitored on a daily basis. In addition, 6 members of the IT network team have access to the system in order to manage reporting and provide technical support to the Safeguarding team, when required; IT staff do not actively monitor web filtering reports.