Developing technology that keeps schools and their users safe and secure from online harms

As a company that works solely in the education market, we welcome the publication of the Online Harms white paper (8 April 2019).

We are now looking at how we can work with the government during the 12-week consultation period, to ensure that the needs of the thousands of UK schools that we work with are met.

As an organisation that has a rich history of software development in this area, RM Education continues to invest in the development of technology that keeps schools and their users safe and secure online.

In addition, we will continue to work in partnership with organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation, Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), NSPCC and the UK Safer Internet Centre to protect young learners from online harms.

Soon, we will announce the results from our research carried out in association with the NSPCC into Online Safety Policy and Practice within schools.

The findings have highlighted that schools lack the skills and access to training that is required in a world where online harms are prevalent. We continue to push for a whole-school approach to Online Safety, with the education of the school community being at the heart of that activity. We must find a way to ensure that the whole school has access to the education and resources to protect themselves online.

We now urge the government to work with industry to ensure that internet technology developments allow organisations and individuals to continue to protect the most vulnerable from illegal and harmful content – in the strive for privacy, technical developments in protocols such as DNS over HTTPS and Encrypted SNI may inadvertently prevent the technology used today to protect young and vulnerable people from online harms.

It is essential that the companies that are behind the development of these protocols are in scope for regulation as we run the risk of harmful content being more accessible than ever but not via the social media platforms that are clearly within scope.

Jeremy Cooper, Managing Director of RM Education