Only selected bias-free, ad-free, evidence-based apps and internet resources to be used during school time
After over a decade of trial by harm, the current policy of “blacklist” filtering, whereby a short list of known harmful sites are blocked and children are free to roam the rest of the internet in school, is clearly harmful to children.
In the past year alone there have been five separate widely reported cases across Scotland, of widespread filter failures that have exposed children as young as nine to explicit and harmful content. Over 100,000 children in the country’s two largest cities Edinburgh and Glasgow have been left exposed by basic failed filter implementations.
No Acceptance of Liability
The widespread use of Acceptable Use Policies by which local authorities attempt to hold parents, and children as young as four responsible for their own digital harm on these
devices, evidences the fact that the current filtering approach is categorically unsafe.
No parent should, or can, be asked to sign such an agreement as a condition of their child's access to statutory education. And with regard to the attempt to transfer liability for a child's harm on to the child themselves they are not only legally coercive but morally repugnant.
Ads
Furthermore, the heavy use of ad-supported content in schools, means children are exposed to unpredictable and exploitative content from advertisers on a daily basis in class.
Apps
With regard to educational apps, many make sweeping claims of efficacy, only for it to be discovered that the research on which they base their claims are either directly funded by the app creator, lack rigour or have highlighted factors that lead to high risks of bias.
Children’s right to safe access to media is protected under UNCRC Article 17.
The Government’s responsibility to protect children from all forms of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, including by the media are required under Articles 19, 34 & 36.
This legal responsibility to ensure protection from known harms can only be achieved by whitelist filtering and deliberate selection of known age-appropriate resources by educators.
Right
Parents have a right to know that their child will be protected from exposure to explicit and violent content, mental violence and exploitation by commercial media organisations during the school day.