Creating a managed service using the SWGfL Filtering software

Transcription

1 Creating a managed service using the SWGfL Filtering software Contents Overview... 2 How the filtering software works... 3 Logging on... 4 Web Access Policy... 5 Editing your school list... 6 Creating a new rule... 7 Applying to certain times of the day... 8 Logs... 8 Staff Proxy... 9 Creating other Admin users YouTube EDU Appendix A - Suggested timeline for introducing a managed web filtering service Appendix B - Questions to be considered when unfiltering a website Appendix C - Benefit analysis request for unfiltering a website Appendix D - Questions to be asked when assigning Staff Proxy Bibliography P a g e

2 Overview A managed service for web filtering is now recognised as good practice for schools. Where the provision for e-safety was outstanding, the schools had managed rather than locked down systems. In the best practice seen, pupils were helped, from a very early age, to assess the risk of accessing sites and therefore gradually to acquire skills which would help them adopt safe practices even when they were not supervised. (Page 8, The Safe Use of New Technologies Ofsted Ref No ). Where there is a benefit for learners a school should consider allowing access to websites that might have been previously filtered. Schools should: make decisions as to who manages this service (Teaching Staff, ICT Technicians or LA control) establish procedures that allow sites to be opened or denied prepare both educators and learners to adopt safe practices monitor the use of the internet See Appendix A for a suggested time line for introducing a managed web filtering service. The filtering software offered as a core part of the connection to the SWGfL Broadband, allows schools to control the access to web sites, and also allows sites to be opened or denied in certain time slots. There is also the functionality to allow selected people Staff Proxy overriding the filtering system giving that member of staff full Internet access. RM SafetyNet4.0 is a basic filtering software package. Notably missing from the software is: The ability to apply filters to different groups of learners or staff at the same time (a website is either blocked or allowed for the whole school) The ability to monitor individuals use of the web Profanity checking Schools will need to buy other software packages if they wish to extend their use of filtering techniques. 2 P a g e

3 How the filtering software works The filtering software acts on three levels: SWGfL filter lists. These filter lists are provided by SWGfL. They have been assembled with guidance from teachers as well as organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation and Childnet. The rules in these filter lists prevent access to websites containing, for example, offensive materials (such as pornographic or violent imagery), distracting or time-wasting materials (such as social networking and non-educational games) and downloads of certain types of files (such as program or music files). Schools and local authorities cannot directly edit these provided filter lists, but they can influence what they contain, and they can select the ones they want to use. The filter lists are constantly evolving, and updates are automatically applied online to registered organisations. Local Authority filter lists. Local Authorities can create their own filter lists for use by their schools, either to extend filtering or to override rules in SWGfL filter lists. School filter lists. In similar fashion to local authorities, schools can create their own filter lists either to extend filtering or to override rules in SWGfL and local authority filters. Schools should only allow sites that have been filtered at a higher level after completing a benefit analysis (See Appendices B and C). The School filter lists could be dependent on the time of the day therefore allowing access to some sites after the learners have left for the day. 3 P a g e

4 Logging on A nominated user at your school will be sent the Domain, Username and Password to log onto the filtering website. They then log onto It is important that this information is not shared. Other users can be set up as administrators of the system with their own individual log ons. A comprehensive help package can be found by clicking on the Help icon. There is also a link to the Acceptable User Policy which you should read it does indicate that you agree to follow the good practice outlined in this document. 4 P a g e

5 Web Access Policy Clicking on the Web Access Policy icon leads to this screen. This shows the lists that have already been established either by SWGfL or by the LA. Because the lists are frequently updated there is no permanent copy of all the websites on these lists. There is more explanation of what each list is concerned with in the Security and Safety booklet from the SWGfL (See Bibliography). 5 P a g e

6 Editing your school list Clicking on the Your Rules Tab allows you to edit your school list. If you want to edit a rule that already exists on the list place a tick in the box next to the rule and click on the Edit rule icon on the bottom right of the window. The rule may have been set up with wildcards such as: The use of wildcards is important and is explained in a link at the bottom of the screen called Read the Help on rule syntax It is especially important to make sure that the use of wildcards when allowing a site does not lead to inappropriate sites being allowed. As with all this type of work so rules should be tested. 6 P a g e

7 Creating a new rule Click on New Web Rule. In the Rule Text box enter a rule concerning the website. Make sure that you click in either the Deny or Access box. Always enter a comment to indicate why the site is to be used / not to be used, and then click on Create Rule. You should include the initials of the person who suggested the change. Note that the rule may not be applied straight away and you should wait at least 5 minutes to see any changes. You can have as many lists that you like giving them names to allow you the flexibility that the school needs. 7 P a g e

8 Applying to certain times of the day Clicking on the Your Time Periods tab allows you to change the times that can be applied to the lists. You can delete or add more time periods if you wish. Returning to the Your Policy tab and then clicking in the green box on a day, will allow you to choose the Time period that the list will be applied: Logs All the changes that have been completed are logged. These can be seen by clicking on the Logs link on the top right of the window. These logs should be examined on a regular basis to assess the schools filtering policy and to help with any inspections. 8 P a g e

9 Staff Proxy Users can be allowed to bypass the filtering system by making them Staff proxy. Appendix D gives some questions that you might like to consider before allowing Staff Proxy Access to any user. There are two stages to this and it is important that you complete this work in the correct order. Go to the Web Access Policy window, click on the Staff Proxy tab and set the date to which Staff proxy will be allowed. This should be to the end of the academic year forcing a review each year. Click on Users link in the full window and then on Add new user. Enter a Username, Full Name and their County address. should be used as others may have security issues. The County address In the permissions box place a tick in the Staff Proxy box. The user will be sent an with the password. If you edit any users account make sure that you save any changes. If the staff proxy does not work then it could be because there are old settings on the browser. These need to be deleted by following the instructions below: In Internet Explorer select Tools > Internet Settings > General > Browsing history > Delete making sure that there is a tick in the Cookies box. 9 P a g e

10 This information should be given to each user on how to switch to the Staff Proxy server. You have been given Staff Proxy rights. You can switch to using the Staff Proxy server for the duration of a browser session, as follows: 1. Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools/Internet Options 2. Click on the connections tab 3. Click on LAN settings, and tick Use Proxy Server for your LAN 4. Enter staffproxy.swgfl.org.uk in the address box and specify port Click OK 6. Type login.staffproxy into the address line and enter your filtering user name and password. Click OK. When you have finished using the Staff Proxy, close your browser. You will be automatically switched back to using your school's usual proxy server, with filtering enabled. The Staff proxy allows staff to access any site outside of the filter and must be used with caution especially in the classroom. Staff using staff proxy should make sure that the projector is turned off when they log in never leave the computer unattended always log out at the earliest opportunity At the end of the academic year (August) year all users will lose their staff proxy rights and these will need to be reset. Creating other Admin users The same method as above can be used to set other users up as Admin users. It is good practice to keep the number of administrators down to a minimum. Depending on the size of the school only 2 or 3 people should be given these rights. 10 P a g e

11 YouTube EDU YouTube have a service called YouTube EDU. YouTube EDU is an education service with videos provided by Stanford, PBS, TED, Khan Academy etc. This service can be allowed through the SafetyNet Plus filter. Through a YouTube administration account schools can also add other videos onto a playlist. The process can be described as: Allowing access to the services Create an administration Google account Register for YouTube EDU Add YouTube EDU into the SWGfL filtering software SafetyNet Plus Managing the YouTube EDU account Step One If you work on your YouTube EDU account then you will need access to some sites that are normally filtered. Therefore you should either: Temporarily remove the tick in the SWGfL Web-based Social Networking List in the filtering software. The change could take 5 minutes to activate. Work from home! Step Two We recommend that the school creates an administration account for controlling YouTube EDU. This could allow more than one administrator to control and maintain the system. The account could be called something such as: schoolfilter@gmail.com Step Three Use this account to register with YouTube EDU by following this link: 11 P a g e

12 Once you have entered the details you will be led to this screen. The highlighted details are very important and you record these details. Step Four Click on Settings and then the YouTube for schools tab. Paste or copy the link into the box that now appears and click on Save. Full instructions can be found be following this link: Step Five You should now be able to administer the account and: subscribe to Channels from trusted content providers create playlists of selected YouTube videos can be categorised Controlling the Subscriptions Down the left hand panel you should see a panel that lists your subscriptions. Click on the link to Manage Subscriptions. Moving the mouse over the will allow you to Unsubscribe from any subscriptions that you do not want. If you want to subscribe to channels then type in a search term to find the channel and then click on the Subscribe button that then appears. 12 P a g e

13 Creating Playlists Another way of allowing videos through is to create a playlist. Before you can complete this task you will need the url of the YouTube Video you wish to add. From the black triangle near select Video Manager. Then select Playlist. On the right hand side you should see a button that says add a title for this list.. Click on this and then Clicking on the will enable you to paste the url of the video into this playlist. Clicking Add will enable it to join this playlist. You can also load your own videos into YouTube by clicking on the Upload button. A guide to how to manage your playlists is here: To Grant Unrestricted Access Administrators can approve other YouTube accounts for unrestricted access by following the instructions given here: Please remember to place the tick in the SWGfL Web-based Social Networking List in the filtering software. The change could take 5 minutes to activate. 13 P a g e

14 Appendix A - Suggested timeline for introducing a managed web filtering service The steps should not be seen as compulsory and should be changed as appropriate to the individual school. 14 P a g e

15 Appendix B - Questions to be considered when unfiltering a website It is unlikely that all the questions posed will be answered positively and schools will have to judge if the benefits outweigh the issues. 15 P a g e

16 Appendix C - Benefit analysis request for unfiltering a website Website: Originator: Date: Purpose of site: Years: Area Question Notes Is there a clear curriculum reason to Curriculum allow this site? Nature of Materials Endorsement Social Outside of School Reliability Age Restrictions Materials Privacy Registration Are the materials on the website suitable for this age range (and not contentious in nature)? Should the school endorse this site? Does the site have social aspects that allow communication between users? Should users have unsupervised and/or unfiltered access to this site outside of school hours? Has the website been created by a reliable source? Does the website have any age restrictions? Does the school retain the rights to any materials uploaded onto the site? Is access to materials limited to selected groups? Do users have to register to use the site? Filtering Administrator Questions All Users Should the site be opened for all users? Permission Should the request be referred to SMT? Benefit Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Issues Do you have policies to manage any problems that arise? Notes Final Decision: Yes/No Administrators Initials: Date: 16 P a g e

17 Appendix D - Questions to be asked when assigning Staff Proxy The Staff proxy allows staff to access any site outside of the filter and must be used with caution especially in the classroom. Staff using staff proxy should make sure that the projector is turned off when they log in never leave the computer unattended always log out at the earliest opportunity 17 P a g e

18 Bibliography Ofsted - The Safe Use of Technology SWGfL - Safety and Security Byron Report Safer Children in a Digital world and Do we have safer children in a digital World 18 P a g e