In September 2020, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned about a spike in ransomware attacks on universities, colleges and schools, and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) announced a 50% increase in public reports of online child sexual abuse in the three months following lockdown.

As people spend more time online than ever before for work and for leisure, there is a greater risk of online harm – both for individuals and institutions. What better time to take a fresh look at ways to make the internet safer for everyone?

Increased dangers of working from home

IWF communications director Emma Hardy has seen a 65 per cent increase in actionable cases of online child sexual abuse compared with 2019 and says:

“One reason people are stumbling across more distressing content is that they’re working at home on inadequately protected networks.”

To help avoid this, people who are working from home, or have young family members who do so, can check the protections provided by their internet service provider (ISP). David Wright, director of the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSI), points to Test Filtering as an easy, effective tool.

Protections on education provider networks should be reviewed and strengthened if necessary, too. Robust institutional policies to support online safety will help staff and students understand how to work safely, what’s expected of them and what to do when things go wrong. Meanwhile, digital solutions like web filtering and monitoring will screen out harmful content.

The IWF also maintains a URL list of content that it is working to take down, and a list of hashes (digital fingerprints) of child sexual abuse that can be used to identify and remove instances of this content. Schools and colleges need to ensure their web filtering solutions have both of these lists included and enabled. Universities should strongly consider a dedicated web filtering solution as it offers many other benefits, but as a minimum should be obtaining the IWF and CTIRU lists and utilising them to block out illegal material.

Safe working practices

Now that increased online learning provision seems set to continue for the foreseeable future, are students and staff fully prepared? Perhaps not, says Wright.

“There’s an expectation that education organisations will be able to keep learning going in local lockdowns, but in some cases, learners don’t have suitable devices that have suitable software installed, and they may not be aware of the best and safest platforms to use.

“For example, schools may be using Zoom because it’s accessible, but this isn’t appropriate for learners younger than 16.”

Institutions need to look carefully at this and also provide training for staff and students to help them stay safe. Teaching staff should be aware, for example, about the risks involved in using personal devices and personal accounts to ‘chat’. They should be encouraged to establish a professional distance, understand how and when it’s appropriate to use video-conferencing and live-streaming and, crucially, how to tighten up their own privacy settings.

The UKSI has useful resources for staff that are working from home as well as information to help make sure teaching practices promote safe remote learning.

The issues are much the same for students, many of whom won’t be as savvy as we might think about the safety issues around social media and online learning platforms.

According to Wright, university students are particularly vulnerable to the malicious sharing of their intimate images online (so-called ‘revenge porn’) and the UKSI has seen a jaw-dropping 100% increase in requests for help with this and ‘sextortion’ since the national lockdown.

Emma Bond, professor of socio-technical research, director of research and head of graduate school at University of Suffolk, and Andy Phippen, professor of digital rights at Bournemouth University, have produced the Higher Education Online Safeguarding Self-Review Tool (pdf). It contains useful resources focused on all aspects of appropriate online behaviours, as well as information on where to get support and help when these are found wanting.

Their advice for university and college staff is to “be proactive”. They continue:

“Have conversations around digital civility during induction. Offer consistent guidance around things like camera use and set out clear expectations for behaviour and what the consequences will be for those who bully or harass online and how students can disclose abuse. Realign online security and safeguarding as complementary issues.”

The all-important online identity

From senior institutional managers to learners in school, online identities matter. Everyone needs to protect theirs, to stay safe from identity theft, fraud and blackmail, and to make sure future employers get a good impression when they come looking.

It’s sensible to check privacy settings on social media and to make sure personal accounts are set to ‘friends’ only. There are tools to help with this – SWGfL’s test my privacy tool helps with privacy settings and its social media checklists are a handy way to keep up with the safety features on various social media platforms.

Report, report, report

It’s also essential to report safeguarding issues immediately, whether that’s to safeguarding leads within an institution or to outside agencies when necessary. Sometimes this might feel embarrassing or even risky. For example, Emma Hardy and David Wright say the people most likely to stumble on online child sexual abuse are young men aged 16–24, but they’re also the group least likely to report it.

“We’ve made it easy to report to us; it’s anonymous and secure,” says Hardy.

“Distressing as it is when you find images like this, it isn’t enough just to click off them, because that doesn’t make the abuse go away. Reporting it takes seconds and it could help us save a child.”

There are many organisations that provide help with everything from removing intimate images or extremist content to combating online theft. Jisc’s online safety guide contains an extensive list, as does the Higher Education Online Safeguarding Self-Review Tool (pdf).

To find out more about keeping your students, staff and institution safe online, register for the Jisc security conference 2020, free to attend online from 3–5 November 2020. Don’t miss these important talks:

• Tuesday, 3 November, 11.15am – online safeguarding in HE and FE, Emma Bond, professor of socio-technical research, director of research and head of graduate school, University of Suffolk, Andy Phippen, professor of digital rights, Bournemouth University
• Wednesday, 4 November, 11.15am – David Wright, director, UK Safer Internet Centre
• Thursday, 5 November, 11.15am – Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), Metropolitan Police
• Thursday, 5 November, at 13.30pm – Emma Hardy, communications director, Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)