There are different ways to approach monitoring in education, but none are as effective as human-moderated digital monitoring. By integrating cutting-edge digital monitoring with highly-trained human moderators, this robust solution empowers education settings to proactively protect students from a wide range of digital harms. This article explains why human-moderated digital monitoring is in a league of its own.
Digital monitoring in UK education
Today’s children enjoy unprecedented access to digital devices. While this has many benefits, the shrouded nature of young peoples’ digital activity is a significant cause of concern for parents and educators. And with good reason - ⅔ of UK children report experiencing online harms in 2023 (Internet Matters, 2024).
Digital monitoring solutions monitor what students say, do and share on digital devices. In a context where digital threats including cyberbullying, grooming, radicalisation and sextortion are rampant, monitoring has become an essential component of digital safeguarding. Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) directs leaders to “ensure their school or college has appropriate (...) monitoring systems in place and regularly review their effectiveness.”
How digital monitoring works
When a digital monitoring system identifies a potential risk, it notifies designated staff by generating an alert. For example, if a student types “I’ve brought a knife to school” in an online chat, the word “knife” should trigger the monitoring solution to produce an alert and send it to the school.
Monitoring can be applied across all digital environments - from social media feeds to Office 365. The unfortunate reality is that any digital space can be used for harmful means. Note apps may host manifestos, comment features on spreadsheets can be used to send threatening messages, and students can utilise Word documents to record their mental health struggles.
Unmoderated digital monitoring systems put the onus on safeguarding staff to identify high level risks amongst all of the alerts that are generated by the system. They have a tendency to be overly-cautious, resulting in many false positives, so this can be an extremely time-consuming process that adds to the workload of DSLs. Furthermore, it puts students in danger, as high level alerts may not be identified in time to prevent risks from escalating.
Issues such as knife crime, radicalisation or suicidal ideations require fast intervention, and this is often only achievable with human-moderated digital monitoring.
What is human-moderated digital monitoring?
Human-moderated digital monitoring systems include the critical input of a trained team of digital safety experts in the monitoring process.
The solution can detect threats as soon as they arise, with entire screens being assessed for context by advanced behavioural technology. Risks are then automatically organised into threat levels, with medium and serious risks immediately sent to human moderators, who confirm or adjust the threat level and act accordingly.
When risks to health or life are identified, moderators will phone the relevant DSL directly, informing them of the incident, as well as any relevant contextual information, within a matter of minutes. This level of service facilitates fast interventions and provides pastoral staff with key evidence to utilise in their decision-making.
Uninterrupted protection
Moderation teams can be active 24/7, 365 days a year. This round-the-clock monitoring drastically reduces the chances of vulnerable children slipping through the cracks.
Reducing workloads for DSLs
The accuracy of human moderators eliminates false positives, which can be a major problem with solutions that don’t possess this feature. Before DSLs can even respond to risks, unmoderated monitoring systems require them to search through lists of potential incidents to identify those that are genuine. In schools with many pupils and multiple devices in use, this can be a significant time drain.
More than a human eye
Human moderators assess broad categories of incidents occurring in schools up and down the country. This unique perspective, combined with their expertise and experience, allows them to detect concerning patterns and behavioural trends that busy school staff are unlikely to notice.
Monitoring that meets (and even exceeds) statutory guidance
The Department for Education (DfE) makes it clear that schools, colleges and MATs must have some form of monitoring in place to identify digital risks. As every educational setting will have slightly different requirements, KCSIE asserts that “the appropriateness of any (...) monitoring systems are a matter for individual schools and colleges.” It directs schools to certain resources that can help to inform what constitutes “appropriate” monitoring.
One is the DfE’s Filtering and Monitoring Standards for Schools and Colleges. It confirms the importance of identifying risks quickly, explaining: “For monitoring to be effective it must pick up incidents that are of concern urgently, usually through alerts or observations, allowing you to take prompt action.” These guidelines are not just recommended - they outline the standards that schools and colleges “should already be meeting.”
The second document is the Appropriate Monitoring Guide from the UK Safer Internet Centre (UK SIC), which also encourages schools to consider “how alerts generated via monitoring are prioritised to enable a rapid response.”
UK SIC’s guide delves deeper into the different forms of monitoring available to schools, and recommends pro-active monitoring (AKA human-moderated monitoring) to those with “high numbers of devices” in operation. UK SIC states that the most effective pro-active monitoring solutions “provide additional capability and capacity to support school safeguarding staff.” Human moderation is a prime example of this support.
Addressing new and emerging digital threats
Digital threats are always evolving. Schools, colleges and MATs require digital monitoring solutions that offer continued protection in the face of this unpredictable landscape.
Human-moderated digital monitoring can effectively fulfil this need - see how it addresses 2 common digital threats below.
Digital threat: Cyberbullying
Potential issue: Comment functions on spreadsheets, word documents and similar platforms can be used to send threatening or offensive messages. Such activities are easy to disguise from teachers and the spaces are not assessed by web filters. Even if incidents are reported, the evidence can quickly be deleted by perpetrators.
The solution: Human–moderated digital monitoring systems would identify offensive or threatening language and quickly raise an alert. Captures are taken before any evidence is deleted, and human moderators can provide DSLs with full context of the incident, including who sent the first message.
Digital threat: Grooming
Potential issue: Messaging platforms such as email provide covert channels through which anonymous predators can develop trust, collect information and exploit their victims. Grooming tactics can be subtle, and basic monitoring systems may struggle to identify the language used by students talking to predators.
The solution: Human-moderated digital monitoring systems assess entire screens for risk, meaning contextual clues and combinations of words that indicate risk can quickly be identified. Human moderators can then assess potential incidents and provide the clarity that technology alone is often unable to achieve.
Human-moderated digital monitoring with Smoothwall
Digital monitoring systems need to be in place to identify potentially vulnerable students, but they shouldn’t increase workloads for busy DSLs. Smoothwall Monitor acts as an extension of your safeguarding team, prioritising the risk alerts you need to see, and communicating key information as soon as it is available.
Trusted by over 7,000 DSLs worldwide, it helps you protect students with:
- 24/7, 365-day support from UK-based human moderators
- Categorised, appropriate alerts on a broad range of risks
- Comprehensive coverage of online and offline platforms
- Minimal false positives
- Fast, cloud-based deployment
Harness the power of human moderators to ensure your education setting is alerted to serious concerns in minutes.
Learn more about Smoothwall Monitor or request a demo by contacting enquiries@smoothwall.com. We’re ready to help.
Essential reads hand-picked for you...
- Essential Steps for Reviewing Your Monitoring System
- 3 Ways to Reduce False Positives on your Digital Monitoring System
- DfE Filtering and Monitoring Standards Updates 2024: What You Need to Know
