Test your school’s online safety filtering with the test filtering tool
Our partners at SWGfL have set up Test Filtering, a tool to ensure that harmful online content is blocked from your school’s internet connection. Right now it is important to take the time and check your school’s internet connection is restricting this type of harmful material, ready for when schools do get back to regular practice.
How did Block Harmful Content Online Begin?
Schools in England and Wales are required “to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school, including by establishing appropriate levels of filtering”.
Furthermore, for schools in England, the Department for Education’s statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ obliges schools and colleges in England to “ensure appropriate filters and appropriate monitoring systems are in place. Children should not be able to access harmful or inappropriate material from the school or colleges IT system” however, schools will need to “be careful that “over blocking” does not lead to unreasonable restrictions as to what children can be taught with regards to online teaching and safeguarding.”
What is Test Filtering?
Test Filtering is a simple tool / website that checks to see if your school’s filtering solution adequately blocks illegal online content, specifically:
- Child Sexual Abuse Content
- Unlawful terrorist content
These lists are provided by two of the leading organisations in the removal of illegal content from the internet.
- IWF – a not-for-profit organisation that works internationally to remove child sexual abuse content from the internet. Each week, IWF assesses and removes “more than 1,000 webpages… Each webpage may contain thousands of images.” IWF is one of three partners in the UK Safer Internet Centre, along with SWGfL and Childnet.
- Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) – which has secured the removal of over 310,000 pieces of terrorist content from the internet. Now is the time to act.
How Does Test Filtering Work?
Using Test Filtering couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is:
- Visit URL HERE
- Enter your school’s name and postcode
- Start the test
It really is that simple!