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Internet Filtering Software for Schools

Internet Filtering Software Selection for Schools

3 Things To Consider When Selecting Internet Filtering Software For Your School Technology (including the internet) is an integral part of our educational system.

It has brought the width and breath of the world’s knowledge into our classrooms and opened up doors of discovery, that just a few short years ago, only students blessed with the means of attending the finest schools would have had access to. On the flip side, it has raised many questions and concerns as to what our children may be exposed to and how we can best shield them from unwanted content, without limiting their ability to explore and learn from this treasure trove of knowledge.

As educators, the job is made that much more difficult due to the fact that, in most cases, systems will be set up for a wide range of students – with various ages, differing needs, socio-economic and religious backgrounds, and levels of maturity. This, for obvious reasons, creates quite a complex job and when the need to not only manage internet accessibility, but to protect the system itself from viruses, malware, and hacker attacks is added to the mix, you can easily see why selecting the correct  ‘Internet Filtering Software’ for your school system is a must.

So, how do you select the best internet filtering software for a school? Here are a few points you should take into consideration.


1.  Coverage

In the early days of the internet, filtering software came in two varieties.

The first provided by default settings that allowed every website to be viewed and then you could blacklist sites that you didn’t want to people to have access to. The other was the exact opposite, everything was blocked and then you could white-list the sites that were OK to view.

Today, with billions of websites online, these are no longer viable oppositions. Filtering software must be able to distinguish what the content of a page is about and categorise it accordingly. Otherwise, there is no possible way the entire web can be covered with any degree of accuracy.

 

2.  Versatility & Adaptability

Due to the wide range of students that may be using a school’s network at any one time, versatility & adaptability are of paramount importance. Ideally, the filtering software would give schools leaders the ability to set overall governing rules and then further customise the settings of each individual account or subgroup in the system.

 

3.  Designed for Education

Educational systems have to deal with account numbers greater than all but the largest corporations and with the content concerns that only a parent can understand. This creates a totally unique set of needs, requiring a system specially designed for and dedicated to meeting those needs.

Cyberhound provides real-time categorisation and unrivalled coverage of 99.99% of the active web delivers the most granular and reliable controls for schools.

CyberHound uses a combination of machine learning and human quality assurance to maintain high accuracy, and it is updated in real-time and is continually being advanced for schools. This coupled with CyberHound’s advanced internet controls gives schools the best of all 3 areas.