Safe Surfing: Why Your School Needs to Use Web Filtering

Last Updated on August 4, 2023 by

Did you know that around 35% of all internet downloads are explicit? There’s no doubt that kids at your school will try to access this kind of material. If you want to prevent your students from accessing explicit or unproductive material while at school, you’ll need to implement a web filtering system. 

So what exactly is a web filtering system, and what kind of content can it protect your students from? This article tells you everything you need to know. 

What is Web Filtering? 

Web filters are when you prevent access to certain websites across your whole school network. When a student or member of staff attempts to access a blocked site, they’ll receive a message stating that the site is blocked. 

In some cases, there will also be a message that explains why the site was blocked. For example, web filtering for schools might say that a site was blocked as it contains malware. 

Protect Against Malware

No one wants to see malware on their computer, but malware is especially risky if it gets on to an organizational network. If one student manages to install malware, it could quickly spread to every other PC in the network. 

This could result in you having to shut down your whole network to contain the malware. Safe school network filtering includes a huge database of sites known to contain malware and can block websites to prevent your students from accessing them. 

Something like a protective DNS service is an excellent choice if you want to have strong protection against malware.

Prevent Access to Explicit Content

The internet is home to some very explicit and shocking content. Not only could your students access but they could also find content with violence or political extremism. 

It’s pretty likely that your students will attempt to access this kind of material, so you need to have a good blocking system in place. One of the significant benefits of web filtering is that it blocks not only the well-known explicit sites but also the more obscure ones as well. 

Prevent Distractions

Another one of the significant benefits of web filtering is that it can prevent your students from accessing distracting websites. The internet is full of games, social media sites, and other distractions. 

If you want your students to be productive and get their work done, you’ll absolutely need to have a robust web-blocking system in place. Students will happily use the school computers to play games all day if you let them. The only way to prevent this behavior is to use web blocking. 

Web Filtering can Protect Your Students

There’s a lot on the internet that your students shouldn’t access. If you don’t have a comprehensive web filtering system in place, it’s almost certain that your students will go to explicit or unproductive sites. 

If you want to learn more about some other technology-related topics, take a look at some of our other articles.

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