The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its Filtering and Monitoring Standards for Schools and Colleges. The changes focus on generative AI, clarifying how education settings should assess the risks it presents, and what that means for filtering and monitoring provisions.
This article provides a breakdown of each change.
The DfE's Filtering and Monitoring Standards set out the responsibilities educational settings are expected to meet when it comes to filtering and monitoring. Understanding those responsibilities is essential for ensuring students, staff and networks are adequately protected from digital risks.
It is one of the 6 core standards that all schools and colleges should be meeting, or at the very least working towards meeting by 2030.
The document covers the roles and responsibilities of senior leadership teams (SLTs), IT support, designated safeguarding leads (DSLs), headteachers, governors, proprietors and anyone else involved in digital safeguarding in education.
The DfE describes this update as providing "clarity on assessing the risk around generative AI in schools and colleges."
The standards already set a clear baseline for filtering and monitoring practice. This update brings AI-generated content explicitly within scope, and prompts schools and colleges to think more carefully about whether their current provision can address the associated risks.
The definition of filtering in the introduction to the standards is now described as “identifying and blocking specific web links and web content in formats such as text, images, audio, video and AI-generated content.”
Details: This is a small but important change. It confirms that AI-generated content is now part of the filtering landscape — not an outlier, but something all provisions should be capable of handling. Schools and colleges are advised to understand whether their monitoring system can inspect or report on such activity occurring within apps.
The most substantial change for 2026 is this new paragraph in the section on reviewing filtering and monitoring provisions:
"All schools and colleges should consider whether a filtering and monitoring solution that can handle real-time, dynamic, personalised and AI-generated content is required. Schools and colleges introducing generative-AI tools should assess the risks, referring to the Department for Education's (DfE) Generative AI: product safety standards."
Details: While this does not mandate a specific type of solution, it encourages schools and colleges to actively consider whether what they have in place is sufficient — particularly where generative AI tools are being introduced. For example, DNS and URL-based filters will not be able to detect risks in AI material unless the content is on a web page that is already included on the relevant blocklist.
The standards already require schools and colleges to review their filtering and monitoring provision “at least once every academic year.” This is now emphasised, with the small tweak of adding a timescale reminder by referring to the review as “The yearly review…”
Details: The DfE is keen to remind schools and colleges that reviews of filtering and monitoring systems are essential, to ensure they continue to operate effectively and offer adequate protection from online risks. A frequency of once a year is the minimum expectation for education settings.
The guidance has been updated to clarify that reviews should consider:
“How any generative AI tools are used at your school or college”
“Technical limitations, such as whether your solution can monitor and filter real-time, dynamic, personalised or AI-generated content.”
And that reviews should take place when:
“New technology is introduced, such as new devices or generative-AI tools”
(This is in addition to the existing factors and scenarios already detailed in this section.)
Details: This is another reminder that introducing AI tools to a setting must involve considerations of how this technology will fit into existing online safety frameworks, with particular attention paid to whether filtering and monitoring systems are equipped to mitigate the potential risks.
For schools and colleges, a practical next step is to review filtering and monitoring provisions with these updates in mind.
Key questions to consider are:
Has your setting assessed the risks associated with any generative AI tools you are using or planning to introduce?
Is your current filtering solution able to identify harmful or inappropriate AI-generated content, including that which is dynamic or personalised?
Can your monitoring provision identify risks in digital behaviours related to AI tools, for example, interactions with AI chatbots?
Is your review process set up to respond to new technology as it is introduced?
We recommend reading the full Filtering and Monitoring Standards to ensure a thorough understanding of the DfE’s expectations for these solutions.