24 Sep School Web Filtering: Is Yours Still Doing Its Job?

Is Your School’s Web Filtering Still Doing Its Job?

The pupils are back. The laptops are open. The Wi-Fi is busy again.

And somewhere in the background, your school web filtering is quietly deciding what thousands of clicks should – and shouldn’t – be allowed to reach.

But when was the last time anyone actually checked it?

For many schools, web filtering is one of those systems that was installed years ago and has been running ever since.

No complaints? It must be working.

Unfortunately, safeguarding isn’t quite that simple.

School web filtering has changed

The internet pupils are using today is very different from the internet they were using even a few years ago.

Social platforms change. New websites appear. Content moves between services. And now AI tools can generate personalised content in real time.

That’s one reason the Department for Education’s filtering and monitoring standards have continued to evolve.

The latest guidance says schools should consider how generative AI is being used and whether their filtering and monitoring provision can deal with real-time, dynamic, personalised and AI-generated content.

In other words, school web filtering isn’t something to install and forget about.

Filtering and monitoring aren’t the same thing

This is an easy one to muddle up.

Filtering is designed to prevent access to inappropriate or harmful online content.

Monitoring looks at activity and can highlight behaviour or incidents that may need attention.

You can therefore have good filtering without necessarily having appropriate monitoring – and vice versa.

The DfE expects schools to consider both as part of their safeguarding arrangements. It also says filtering and monitoring provision should be reviewed at least once every academic year.

September is a pretty sensible time to ask whether that review has happened.

Five questions worth asking

You don’t need to become an IT expert.

Start with five simple questions:

• Do we know what our web filter blocks – and what it doesn’t?
• Do pupils and staff have different levels of access?
• Does filtering apply to all relevant school-managed devices and locations?
• Who receives and reviews monitoring information?
• When did we last formally review whether the system is still suitable?

If the answer to the last one is “Hmm… I’m not sure”, that’s probably your starting point.

The DfE specifically says schools shouldn’t simply use one blanket filtering profile for everybody. At a minimum, staff and pupils should have different profiles, allowing access to be appropriate to the user while avoiding unnecessary restrictions on teaching and learning.

What about AI?

This is the newer part of the conversation.

Blocking ChatGPT and assuming the AI problem has disappeared isn’t necessarily an answer. AI functionality is increasingly appearing inside search engines, browsers, productivity software and other applications.

Schools therefore need to understand where AI is being used, what information pupils can access through it and what safeguarding risks that introduces.

The DfE’s current filtering and monitoring standard specifically includes AI-generated content and asks schools to consider generative AI as part of their annual review.

That’s an important change.

Who is responsible?

It isn’t simply “an IT thing”.

The DfE places overall strategic responsibility with governing bodies and proprietors, with senior leadership, the DSL, governors and IT support all having roles to play.

IT looks after the technology.

The DSL brings the safeguarding knowledge.

Leadership and governors provide oversight and assurance.

It works best when those people actually talk to each other — rather than everybody assuming somebody else has checked it.

A good September job

The start of an academic year is an ideal opportunity to review school web filtering.

You don’t necessarily need to replace anything.

You may simply need to confirm that what you already have is configured correctly, covers the devices it should, provides useful information to the right people and still reflects the needs of your pupils.

Because when it comes to safeguarding, “we’ve got a filter” isn’t really the question.

The better question is:

“Do we know it’s doing what we need it to do?”

And that’s a much more useful conversation to have.

Want some help?

At Simply IT, we help schools understand the technology behind their safeguarding arrangements without drowning them in technical jargon.

If you’re unsure whether your filtering and monitoring setup still meets your school’s needs, we can help you review what you have, identify any gaps and explain the findings in plain English.

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