Website scanning software launched to protect students online
- Impero Web:check scans 150 million new URLs and 150,000 adult webpages per day
9 June 2020, Nottingham – School safeguarding leader Impero today launches Impero Web:check, a real-time web content filtering solution for schools. Powered by Netsweeper, Impero Web:check analyses web content in real-time, protecting learners from inappropriate or malicious content both in and out of the classroom.
Impero Web:check blocks potentially harmful material in multiple languages across more than 90 areas, including extremism, weapons, sexual education and substance abuse. The software also highlights concerning patterns in student web activity with regular reports so that staff can reach out to offer support to students at risk. The software scans 150 million new URLs and 150,000 adult web pages per day in real-time, ensuring that blocklists are always up to date.
Impero Web:check ensures that schools can meet Ofsted requirements for online safety and the Department for Education’s ‘Prevent duty’. These regulations protect students by requiring schools to block harmful or inappropriate content.
There have been recent reports that new duty of care laws to protect children from online harms could be pushed back to 2023. The Online Harms bill was first mentioned in a green paper in October 2017, in which the Government pledged it would make the UK the safest place for children online and a world leader for internet legislation.
Justin Reilly, former teacher and CEO of Impero, says: “The ubiquity of the internet and mobile devices enables educators to enhance education and offers great opportunity for learning. But it’s an undeniable fact that online risks have increased over the years and especially during the lockdown. This was a major topic of discussion at our recent safeguarding virtual roundtable, where experts discussed the growth and proliferation of online threats. The National Crime Agency anticipated that the lockdown would increase online child sexual abuse. We must do everything in our power to protect children from these threats and to ensure that students remain safe as they return to the classroom.
“As a former teacher, I know that safeguarding is the foundation of effective teaching. The ubiquity of the internet and mobile devices bring a whole new set of safeguarding issues, which teachers cannot be expected to monitor manually. Impero Web:check is the latest addition to our suite of safeguarding tools that provide teachers and schools with peace of mind that children are protected from malicious and harmful content online.”
Available on-premise or cloud-hosted, the software enforces the ‘Safe Search’ functionality across popular web search engines such as Google, Bing and YouTube. Impero Web:check protections can be applied outside of the classroom by delivering traffic directly back to the school via a device filter, which is available as an add-on.
Impero Web:check work alongside Impero Education Pro, allowing for filtering alongside monitoring, creating the ultimate student online safety package Impero Web:check is available for schools via the Impero website: www.imperosoftware.com/uk/impero-webcheck
