{"id":240547,"date":"2026-01-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=240547"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:35:00","slug":"do-you-know-what-your-pupils-are-viewing-on-school-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/do-you-know-what-your-pupils-are-viewing-on-school-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you know what your pupils are viewing on school technology?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department for Education\u2019s technology in schools survey 2024-25<\/a> makes important reading for leaders and raises urgent issues arising from the use of education technology (\u201cedtech\u201d) in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven by government policy, teaching is becoming increasingly digital<\/a>. The rationale is that the use of technology has the potential to reduce teachers\u2019 workload, increase inclusivity and support pupils to develop digital skills for opportunity and growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools also see the use of technology as an opportunity to cut costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many parents do not agree. Voices are becoming louder, arguing that edtech has no place in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campaigning around the linked issue of online safeguarding enjoys high levels of public support. In particular, parents have very real fears about what children are able to view on devices provided to them by their schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such fears are not baseless, as examples are beginning to emerge where things have gone badly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, primary school pupils were able to access explicit material through search engines on iPad devices issued to them by Glasgow City Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools lack monitoring solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The DfE survey suggests a high proportion of schools have education-specific filtering solutions in place to limit what can be accessed by pupils\u2019 devices. But the effectiveness of these solutions is questionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tenth of IT leads reported having to deal with \u201cunauthorised use of devices, networks or servers\u201d by students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This figure is likely to underrepresent the scale of the problem, given that roughly one in 10 IT leads also said that they didn\u2019t know if there was any unauthorised use in the last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of schools do not have a monitoring solution to check what pupils are viewing on their school devices. This is concerning \u2013 how can a school understand what content pupils are accessing and whether its filtering solution is effective if it does not have a linked monitoring system in place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when solutions are in place, schools must ensure these are subject to regular and robust review. The survey suggests many do not review the effectiveness of the solutions regularly, or only do so if an incident occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undoubtedly, financial resources have an impact. Schools with constrained resources are likely to find it more difficult to implement effective filtering and monitoring systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal action underway elsewhere<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And the issue is not confined to the UK. Legal action is already underway elsewhere. Two live cases in California highlight issues schools can face if they do not take sufficient precautionary measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first claim \u2013 M.C. v Google \u2013 alleges that by failing to prevent a child from accessing pornography on his school-issued Chromebook, Google is responsible for the child\u2019s debilitating pornography addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second claim \u2013 Z.G. v Google \u2013 alleges that by failing to prevent a child\u2019s access to Discord, Google is responsible for the child being targeted and sexually victimised on that platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst both cases are against Google, one can see how similar principles might be applied against schools or local authorities which enable (or fail to prevent) pupils accessing inappropriate content that leads to their harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools should urgently reflect on their approach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With campaigners pressing the issue and DfE\u2019s survey revealing inadequacies in some schools\u2019 systems, it is likely that the use of edtech will lead to litigation of some kind in the UK this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to protect pupils from harm, and by extension to avoid legal action, schools should urgently reflect on their approach to devices that they provide to pupils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reduction in the use of edtech will reduce the risks but, given the rapid developments in technology and pupils\u2019 growing skill at circumventing restrictions, it is inevitable that issues will continue to arise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an obvious and immediate step, robust filtering and monitoring systems must be in place and their effectiveness reviewed on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also advisable to review all relevant internal policies and ensure these are clear, transparent and followed. If issues do occur it is critical to address them immediately, to prevent further harm and reduce associated legal risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to protect pupils from harm, and by extension to avoid legal action, schools should urgently reflect on their approach to devices that they provide to pupils<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":132757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3734],"tags":[796],"post-theme":[3726],"class_list":["post-240547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-the-leader","tag-legal","post-theme-the-legal-leader"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t