School device filtering and monitoring: what a school needs

What is the difference between filtering and monitoring?

Filtering stops students reaching harmful or inappropriate content online; monitoring records and reviews what users do on school devices and flags concerns, but does not stop anything. A school adding tablets, laptops, a learning platform or connected projectors needs both. This is one of the group's school technology guides.

The UK Department for Education's filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges put it plainly: Filtering is preventative. It protects users from illegal, inappropriate and potentially harmful content by blocking specific web links and content, including text, images, audio, video and AI-generated content. Monitoring is reactive. It can be manual, such as teachers viewing screens as they walk around a classroom, or software on a device, and the standards add that Monitoring solutions do not block users from seeing or doing anything.

These standards are written for schools and colleges in England and are not Malaysian rules. They are used here because they set out, in plain steps, what any school putting devices in students' hands has to decide: who is in charge, what is blocked, how activity is watched and how often it is all checked.

Who in a school is responsible for filtering and monitoring?

A senior leader and a member of the school board are responsible for making sure filtering and monitoring are in place; the person who leads on safeguarding deals with what the systems find; and the school's IT support, in-house or outside, keeps the systems running. Whatever the job titles, it must be clear who does what.

The UK standards say the board should assign a member of the SLT and a governor, to be responsible for ensuring these standards are met, SLT being the school's senior leadership team. The senior leadership team scopes the school's needs, buys the systems, documents what is blocked or allowed and why, and reviews how well it works. The designated safeguarding lead checks reports and responds to concerns, and IT support maintains the systems and provides the reports. The standards note that the job titles may not fit every school, but the responsibilities should go to the most relevant person.

The UK standards add that managing these systems needs the specialist knowledge of both safeguarding and IT support, and that a school may need to ask its provider for system-specific training and support.

What should a school's filtering do, and not do?

Filtering should block harmful and inappropriate content without getting in the way of teaching, and it should not treat every user the same: at the least, students and staff need different levels of access. It should cover every school-managed device, including those taken home, and guests on the school's internet.

The UK standards say filtering should block harmful content without unreasonably impacting teaching and learning, and that No filtering system can be 100% effective, so a school needs to understand its system's coverage and limits. Your filtering system should not have a blanket filtering profile for all users. It should be active, up to date and applied to school-managed devices, including those taken off-site, unmanaged devices under a bring your own device scheme, and guests. Devices the school does not manage should be on a separate network.

What it must block, at the least. The standards name lists of illegal websites kept by the Internet Watch Foundation and the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, which filtering providers block as part of their service, and say the filtering must be designed so these lists cannot be disabled, overridden, or altered by any user, system administrators included. They suggest a testing tool from the South West Grid for Learning to check that, as a minimum, the filter blocks illegal child abuse material, unlawful terrorist content and adult content. A school can block more content locally. The filter should let the school identify, as a minimum, the device name or ID, the time and date of the attempted access, and the search term or content blocked. Any temporary exception, for example for system updates, must be approved and documented by the senior leader responsible.

The standards also say search engines should have safe search on by default, locked into the chosen browser.

How should a school monitor student activity on devices?

Every teacher in a room with students on devices should keep an eye on the screens as part of normal classroom supervision; some schools add software that watches device activity and sends alerts. The right mix depends on the students' age, how easy screens are to see, how many devices are in use and whether they go home.

The UK standards say All staff should conduct a level of in-person monitoring if they are in a room with students on devices. A monitoring plan could include device monitoring through device management software, in-person monitoring in the classroom, and network monitoring using log files of internet traffic. As a minimum, the plan should include weekly monitoring reports highlighting incidents, and immediate reports when an incident is classed as high risk. Everyone using the school's network should know filtering and monitoring are in place, and monitoring software should tell users the device is being monitored, for example with a message at each log-in.

The UK standards say schools will need to conduct their own data protection impact assessments and review the privacy notices of third-party providers, so ask a monitoring provider what it collects, where it keeps it and for how long.

What should a school check before new devices are handed out?

Before new tablets, laptops or other connected equipment reach students, check that filtering and monitoring already work on them, that each type of user gets the right settings, and that the check is written down. The same applies to new apps and services, and to equipment used in another building or taken home.

The standards say a school should make sure filtering and monitoring systems work on new devices and services before distributing them. Checks should cover school-owned devices and services, which include laptops, tablets and audio-visual equipment, different sites, and whether accounts are filtering the right content for students, staff and guests. A log of each check should record when it took place, who did it, what was tested and what was done as a result. Put together, a check before a batch of devices goes out looks like this:

1. Sign in as a student, a teacher and a guest, and check each gets the right filtering.
2. Try it on the school's main line, any backup line, and off-site if the devices go home.
3. Log the date, who checked, what was tested and what was fixed.

What else to prepare is in the group's school device roll-out checklist.

How often should a school review its filtering and monitoring?

At least once every school year, and again whenever something changes: a safeguarding risk is found, students start bringing their own devices, new devices or AI tools arrive, a major software update lands, or the network is reconfigured. Senior leaders, the safeguarding lead and IT support should do the review together.

The UK standards tell schools to review your filtering and monitoring provision at least once every academic year, and as a minimum also when a safeguarding risk is identified, working practice changes, new technology is introduced, major software updates occur or the network and device configuration changes. The results and any actions should be recorded. The review should cover how the school uses technology, what the filter blocks or allows, and how and where AI tools are used. It fits naturally into the group's term-by-term school technology checklist.

Which group company covers which part of a connected classroom?

Filtering and monitoring systems are the work of the school's IT support or filtering provider. Within ES Producation Groups, the devices, projectors and learning platform that those systems must cover, and the payment options, sit with different companies, so a school can ask the group about several parts, or only the part it needs.

When a school adds tablets and laptops, a learning platform or connected projectors, from the group or from anyone else, its IT support or filtering provider should check filtering and monitoring on them before they are handed out, which is the standards' own rule quoted above. When asking any supplier, ask how its devices or platform work with the school's existing filtering and monitoring. The network these systems run on is covered in the group's guide to checking a school's Wi-Fi for classroom technology.

What should a school send when planning connected classrooms?

Send how many classrooms and devices are planned, what the school already has, who looks after its filtering and monitoring, and whether a payment option is wanted. With that, the group can put the school in touch with the right company for each part a group company covers.

• The number of classrooms and the devices planned for students and teachers.
• The devices, displays and learning platform already in use.
• Who provides the school's filtering and monitoring, and whether new devices have been checked with them.
• Whether a payment option is wanted.

WhatsApp the group on +60 12-565 2091 or email info@neonplus.com.my, and we will put you in touch with the right company. Every school technology guide from the group is listed on the insights page.