Some online risks are more common in FE settings.
Risk of radicalisation, racism and violence in the community often emerges first in a student's digital behaviour.
Digital monitoring gives you real-time sight of what students are doing, saying or sharing that may indicate they are in harm's way, or at risk of harming others.
Filtering alone is not enough.
Filtering stops students from accessing harmful content. But it doesn't show you risks revealed in what they are typing or sharing beyond the search bar. For example, in emails, in chats, to chatbots, in documents, in spreadsheets and on forums.
Monitoring bridges that gap — alerting you to signs of harm, distress, or intent within minutes of them occurring. And, in the case of Smoothwall Monitor, this happens with full human-moderated contextualisation, that removes false positives and enables you to intervene fast and appropriately.
Download our paper now to learn...
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minutes
Every 15 minutes, Monitor identified an FE student suspected to be at serious risk.
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minutes
Every 25 minutes, Monitor identified an FE student suspected to be involved in a serious cyberbullying or violent incident.
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hours
Every 13 hours, Monitor identified an FE student suspected to be facing a very serious risk to their health or life.
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hours
Every 16 hours, Monitor identified an FE student involved in a suspected terrorism alert.
Take our 2-minute student visibility check-in for FE colleges and
discover the risks that might be going unseen at the moment,
and how digital monitoring can help uncover them.
Irene Farragher
Director of Student Services
Lakes College
Cumbria
Andrew Ottey
Deputy Director of Student Life
Luminate Education Group
Leeds
Samantha Gunnarsson
Assistant Principal Learner Experience
The College, Merthyr Tydfil
Wales
Christian Phillips
Learner Experience Co-ordinator
The College, Merthyr Tydfil
Wales
Evie Stannard
Student Safeguarding Manager
Leeds City College
Leeds
Irene Farragher
Director of Student Services
The Lakes College
Cumbria
Safeguarding leaders from the United Colleges Group and Birmingham Metropolitan College came together to talk to us openly about the realities of trying to spot students at risk online.
The conversation makes it clear that digital monitoring is no longer optional in FE environments — it’s essential to keep learners safe.
We discussed...
The Serious Safeguarding Risks Going Unnoticed in FE Colleges - And How to Uncover Them
In this webinar session, we were joined by Kay Burton Williams of BMet College and Smoothwall’s Chantelle Doyle-Sopp as they explored the specific online risks going unseen in some FE settings.
They'll discussed how these risks present such a challenge to DSLs & DSSs, and how digital monitoring is helping other colleges catch them early to keep students safe.
Hi, my name is Sean Lazenby and I've been helping FE safeguarding leaders successfully implement monitoring for many years.
I can show you how it works and answer any questions, as well as share the life-changing impact it has had in other FE environments.
Simply fill in the form and I'll get straight back to you to arrange an informal chat.

Head of Further Education
Smoothwall