For Rossbourne School at Hawthorn, in Victoria, SurfControl Web Filter has not only ensured a safe Internet environment for students and teachers, but has served as a tool for teaching students life skills.

With the assistance of IT partner Computelec, Rossbourne School implemented SurfControl Web Filter this year to improve its Internet management.

The independent school - which caters for 120 students who’ve experienced difficulties adapting to mainstream education - has IT resources that are accessed by both students and staff.

Rossbourne has a computer in each classroom, seven in the library, 13 in the ICT room and eight laptops that supplement classroom resources.

Instrumental in the installation of Rossbourne’s first main computer system, Computelec recommended and installed SurfControl Web Filter as the best web filtering solution to protect students and staff from inappropriate Internet content.

Rossbourne School ICT Coordinator Carol Drossos said the continuous protection delivered by SurfControl’s database, which constantly captured and classified inappropriate websites, was a major benefit.

The largest and fastest growing in the industry, SurfControl’s Web Threats Database categorises more than 11 million websites, with 45,000 new sites added each week.

“Prior to having SurfControl Web Filter, we couldn’t identify in real time whether students had knowingly or unknowingly accessed inappropriate sites” , she said.

“With the web filter we now have the security of knowing that the vast majority of inappropriate sites can’t be accessed. We can also easily see on-screen any user activity that might not be desirable. This makes SurfControl Web Filter a very userfriendly product.”

SurfControl Web Filter stops pornography and viruses, as well as spyware, phishing scams and keyloggers that can steal personal information. Through SurfControl’s global team of threat experts, customers receive continuous protection against current and emerging threats.

Ms Drossos said the flexibility of the web filter meant access was tailored according to student and teacher needs, on a case by case basis if required.

For example, while webmail access is blocked, user access was modified for those teachers who used webmail to access newsletters and educational journal information that were emailed.

IT and learning about the Internet is integrated into the curriculum for all students, who range in age between 12 and 18, for project research, learning about Microsoft Office programs and for encouraging student interaction.

Rossbourne School Business Manager June Caithness said SurfControl Web Filter had created an additional educational benefit, as a tool in teaching students responsible Internet use.

“Students manage their individual Internet download limits, so that they learn to pace their usage over a month” , Ms Caithness said.

“Through SurfControl Web Filter we can identify ‘bandwidth hogs’, and then use that to educate them to use their Internet time more responsibly and assist their learning process.”

Learning to be responsible in their Internet use is a skill that the students can apply in other life situations, such as keeping to a budget, which shows why this feature is so valuable.

SurfControl leads the Australian content filtering market, increasing its lead over traditional best of breed content filtering solutions to secure 33.7% market share in 2004, according to IDC.

Specialists in technology for the education sector, Computelec offer a full service to schools including advice, installation and ongoing support of SurfControl products.