Safe Searching and Browsing

NB This page expresses a personal perspective, and no connection with any official office is intended or implied. It has been put together from a range of authoritative sources. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure its accuracy and validity, this cannot be guaranteed, and schools are advised to seek advice if unsure.

Common Concerns

In the NAACE research for Becta inappropriate content was perceived as the largest area of concern. Since this report was published this should also include cyber-bullying.

There are no safe browsers!

The two main browsers in common use are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla. Mozilla is a free / open source browser, and Internet Explorer is probably the most common browser. Whilst both have content management features, they are poor and in practice almost unusable by most. It is especially difficult to manage content settings in a school network environment where many users share a machine, indeed the whole concept of children sharing a machine is something that is poorly addressed, despite it being the predominant school scenario.

• Recommendation: Schools should rely on network filtering and blocking software and a safe search engine (see below) rather than expect browser features to be usable.

There is a safe search engine!

During considerable research, we looked at numerous Internet search engines, and concluded that only two are safe enough to be recommended for use in schools. Both are operated by the BBC, one of which is specifically aimed at use by younger children.

• BBC Search Engine
• CBBC Search Engine

The BBC Search Engine is comprehensive, UK focused and safe, and can be recommended for general school use; however younger children may find the CBBC Search Engine more suited to their needs. The CBBC search is restricted and only returns results from known child friendly sites with real value.

Main features of The BBC Search Engine

• Family Friendly - they use a combination of technology and regular human checks to detect and block offensive websites, and aim (are!) the safest search engine in the UK.
• UK-focused - dedicated to serving a UK audience. The BBC use special software to bring websites which are more relevant to people living, working and studying in the UK to the top of their search results.
• BBC Recommended - Taking the Guesswork out of Search Results, their expert editors carry out research into popular topics and recommend the best websites available. They also highlight useful links from BBC News, Sport, Entertainment and Education.
• Why risk anything else? Just Follow the Bear!

CLICK HERE for information on how to use BBC search.

• Recommendation: Schools should use the BBC search engine, and if a local home page isn't provided, make it their home page.

Internet Explorer

For home computer users, Internet Explorer is the most common browser, and has a feature called 'Content Advisor'. This can be found by opening the browser, then going to Tools>Internet Options>content. CLICK HERE to learn how to set it up. It works by looking for a websites metadata (for the technical really, this is a rating for the content of the site that most reputable websites provide. Unfortunately some lie!) and uses this to determine how suitable it is based on a narrow set of categories: language; nudity; sex; violence. The content advisor picks up the rating and then blocks it of it is inappropriate for the content level selected, or rejects it completely if it is not rated at all. You can also download a special file from Safesurf, which claims itself to be:

"The first rating system for the Internet, with a comprehensive 12 category system for rating content on the Web. "

This provides a local database of safe sites that Internet Explorer can refer to locally (mostly biased to American market), and frankly is not a great help.

WARNING: DON'T FORGET THE CONTENT ADVISOR PASSWORD. IF YOU DO, ITS A NIGHTMARE TO RESET!

• For the die-hard purist techies, you can use Content Advisor across your network (CLICK HERE), but it isn't recommended if you have Internet Filters from your school broadband provider.

A number of search engines enable users to receive search results rated as suitable, unsuitable or unknown, such as Scandoo. Although this is billed as a safe search engine, it isn't suitable for children, as all it does is rate each site as suitable or unsuitable, it doesn't actually prevent you accessing them or viewing the fact that its found them.

There have been attempts at providing a safe closed browser, but these seem to operate on advertising targeted at kids, and return very poor results of dubious value.

Despite many attempts to regulate Internet content, it is not likely to happen, or will be subject to malicious interference; therefore schools must have in place effective filtering, acceptable use policies, and take other steps to educate children on e-safety.

Filtering Techniques

Filtering can be very effective; however it really only works well with web pages and text, and is not sophisticated in preventing inappropriate images being found and viewed. Filtering can be applied at the single computer level, with home products such as net nanny, on a school network basis, or through the broadband service provider using integrated products such as Websense. The latter MUST be the preferred route for schools, who should consider carefully the risk implications of trying to run and keep udated their own filtering systems. BECTA, the national agency responsible for ICT in schools only accredits those Internet Service Providers (ISP's) who meet the required standards on filtering, and in most cases schools should only consider using their local authority arrangements.

There are essentially five broad filtering philosophies:

• White listing - where you can only go to sites that have been listed as approved; all others are blocked.
• Black Listing - Bad sites are notified and blocked. This involves a lot of work, and is essentially reactive to incidents and reports (if someone catches them!).
• Content categorisation - all sites are categorised (such as gambling; weapons etc.). The user allows or disallows categories. These usually have the additional feature of being able to white or black list specific sites.
• keyword recognition - where key words and phrases are detected and blocked.
• Forensic - where acceptable use is policed in the background using a combination of the above measures, and evidence is kept, usually using a screen shot.

Most e-safety solutions will use a combination of the above approaches.

Teaching Strategies

There are a number of teacher strategies that can be use appropriately:

• WebQuests hyperlinked in common application documents are effective (epecially in primary schools).
• Wiki's offer an effective means of providing links to safe resources (this is one!).
• Learning Platforms and portals offer the best option for safe and secure online environments.

Web Quests

For primary schools and young children, using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo presents a number of risks. WebQuests provide a means of guiding children to sites that have proven educational value. They can be quickly created using a Wiki.

WebQuests Powerpoint

The WebQuest Page

WebQuest Portal

Example WebQuest (History)

Easy WebQuests

Research

BBC Search the safest search engine.

Home Office advice for parents.

Audit of Internet safety practices

Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet (Good practice guidance for search service providers and advice to the public on how to search safely)