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 School
Security
Schools and
their pupils have access to a global network of information
through the Internet. And we all know the common pitfalls
of the internet, such as the attraction of young people
to illicit or illegal content, software and media downloads.
So making a rich and diverse resource available requires
a careful management and supervision.
 Sexual
Solicitations and Approaches
According to an Internet Safety Survey, it revealed that
many children are victims of online sexual solicitations:
Almost one in five (19 percent) of the young Internet users
surveyed received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the
past year.
Five percent of the surveyed youth received a distressing
sexual solicitation (i.e., the solicitation made them feel
very or extremely upset or afraid).
Three percent of the youth received an aggressive solicitation
involving offline contact or attempts or requests for offline
contact.
None of the solicitations led to an actual sexual contact
or assault.
According to the survey, Two-thirds of the solicitations
happened in chat rooms, and 24 percent were received through
Instant Messages (e-mail messages sent and received in real
time). What's more, 25 percent of the incidents were described
as very or extremely upset or frightened.
Unwanted
Exposure to Sexual Material
The survey also found that many youth are exposed to sexually
explicit pictures on the Internet without seeking or expecting
them:
Twenty-five percent of the surveyed youth reported unwanted
exposures to sexual materials.
Six percent of the youth had experienced distressing exposures
(i.e., the exposure made them very or extremely upset).
Seventy-one percent of the exposures occurred while youth
were surfing or searching the Web, with the rest occurring
through e-mail or Instant Messages. The great majority of
exposures were involved in pictures with nudity; 38 percent
showed people having sex. Eight percent included violent
images. Twenty-three percent of the incidents of unwanted
exposure were described as very or extremely upset; however,
most incidents were not reported to be distressing. Forty-four
percent of incidents were undisclosed.
Harassment
The survey also revealed that some youth are victims of
online harassment:
Six percent of the young people surveyed reported harassment
incidents (threats, rumors, or other offensive behavior)
during the past year.
Two percent of the surveyed youth reported episodes of distressing
harassment (i.e., the incident made them feel very or extremely
upset or afraid).
Peer
to Peer File Sharing
Peer to peer file sharing is used by many young people
to obtain and distribute their favorite music, films and
games via the internet. Not only does much of the content
infringe copyright but there is a lot of pornography available
which bypasses the traditional content filtering systems
which are only able to analyze the web pages.
Viruses
and Spyware
The introduction of viruses and spyware into the network
can be through e-mail, web pages, program downloads and
peer to peer file sharing. Peer to peer downloads take place
by obtaining file parts from multiple locations and are
more difficult for anti virus systems to detect, at least
until the download is complete and the file opened.
Solutions
It is possible for security and content filtering solutions
to be implemented on a pc basis, but these frequently require
a bloated software installation which can impair the performance
of even the very latest hardware and cannot be centrally
configured or managed. They are unreliable, time consuming
and invariably insecure on older operating systems. The
IT savvy students will soon have them disabled or uninstalled
on anything but the most secure domain policy.
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