Internet Filtering
How Internet Filters Work
King’s provides a robust Internet filter whilst students are on campus which works by taking requests made by students and running them through a database before returning the response.
Provided that any offending content is in the filters database (updated both externally and internally), the filter works. The filter is designed as a mechanism to block as much inappropriate content from students as possible.
One of the disadvantages of blocking content on the Internet is that some websites contain both good and bad content. The filter generally blocks everything rather than distinguishing between the two. Students have access on their Haiku portal to request access to blocked sites and these requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
Home Internet Filtering
The best filtering is two eyes and discussions with our children about search strategies and what they do online – see our Cybersmart pages for further information.
As you can see from the diagram, King’s has a robust filter that acts as a firewall for Internet traffic. Unless you have a similar system for your home Internet, you need to consider that it is unfiltered.
King’s does from time to time make an effort to add additional filtering to student machines off-campus. This should not be relied upon as a catch-all or automatic assumption that the Internet from your home is fully filtered.
At home, you supply the Internet and are ultimately responsible for what your child accesses whilst under your care.
