Internet Security

The Internet is a valuable resource that is freely available to all students and staff on all our school network stations. Due to the "unsuitable" nature of some material on the Internet and the possible misuse of email, a number of precautions have to be taken to help ensure that the system is used responsibly:

The use of the Internet will be supervised as closely as is reasonably possible during timetabled lessons. It should be realized however, that users do have access to the Internet at other times and with very little supervision beyond the restrictions outlined below. ICT staff can view a computer screen at any time from anywhere on the school network without the user knowing about it.

• The Internet may only be accessed on week days between 8am - 6pm and during term time only. A time switch is incorporated in the system to prevent access outside these times.
• Users are guided onto the Internet via a page set up for each of the curriculum subjects. This contains links to sites that are relevant to the study of that subject and which have been selected by the teachers of that subject.
• The search engines that are provided as links on our webpages are only those that make an effort to prevent the inclusion of links to "unsuitable" sites in the listed results of any searches made.
• Access to many, if not most sites considered to contain "unsuitable" material is prevented by a filtering system used by our Internet Service Provider. As new sites of this nature come online and come to the attention of teachers all over the country, they are filtered as soon as the service provider is notified.
• Web sites are also filtered and recorded by our own proxy server . Access is prevented to most web-based email servers (Hotmail), "hacking" sites, executable files and many adverts.
• Chatlines are not considered to be a suitable use of a busy school network system nor of anyone’s time in school.
• All staff and students have their own personal email address, which will not be made available to anyone outside of the school except by the individual themselves.
• Emails sent from or arriving at the school are filtered for unsuitable language. Offending messages are returned to the sender with a comment to that effect. Emails are also restricted by size to reduce the possibility of "unsuitable" material being received or sent by attachment.
• Precautions are taken to reduce the chances of infection by computer viruses via the Internet or email, which may then be inadvertently taken home on a floppy disk. The antivirus software, which is installed on all school network stations, is updated every 3 months.
• Users found searching for "unsuitable" material or sending offensive email messages will have their access denied for a month and further action taken depending on the nature of the offence. Repeated abuse of the facilities will result in further and more serious action being taken.

This page has been adapted from guidelines published by DGS/ICT Dept/I D Lee © 1999