Library Services

Parents can rest assured that their children’s internet usage is monitored and restricted to safe, educational content. Regular reports on your child's iPad usage can be provided to help you stay informed about their digital activities.

There will be occasions when we will need to work with parents when a student has not abided by policies and school guidelines.

We look forward to providing this individual support as and when needed.

Internet Filters at Guildford Grammar School

At Guildford Grammar School, we use several layers of protection to help reduce the chances of students coming across inappropriate content online. These include Fortinet and JAMF Safe Internet, which are professional filtering services we subscribe to. These filters are active both on campus and when school devices are taken home.

We also use Google Safe Search, a free service used by all schools. It helps reduce the chance of students accidentally seeing inappropriate pictures or videos in Google search results.
 

How do filters work

Think of filters like security guards who try to organise the internet into “safe” and “not safe.” Websites are grouped into categories such as games, violence, or pornography. We then decide which categories are blocked for each year level.

• For younger students, we block more categories.
• For older students, we allow more as their research needs increase.

However, filters are not perfect. For example:

• If we block games for everyone, it will also block educational games like typing practice or quiz websites. The filter can’t always tell the difference between “learning games” and “just for fun” games.
• Blocking one website (like poki.com) does not stop students finding the same games on “mirror” sites or in different languages. New versions of these sites appear daily.

This same challenge happens with news websites. There isn’t a simple “educational news” category. If we block news for Year 3 and 4, it will also block resources like Behind the News, which many teachers use.

Why can’t filters block everything inappropriate?

Filters are powerful, but they have limits.

For example, a parent recently contacted us about a website offering free sound effects for movies. Most sounds were fine, but a few were inappropriate. The filter allowed the site because it looked safe overall—the problem was with the individual sound files, which filters can’t “listen” to.

In this case, the child immediately recognised it was inappropriate, stopped playing it, and told their parent. That’s the kind of open response we encourage. While we can block the website, another similar site may pop up tomorrow. What really protects students is the combination of filters + open conversations + supervision.
 

What about Google Safe Search?

Google Safe Search is especially tricky. Even at the highest setting, some things still show up.
For example:

• Searching guns will still bring up pictures of guns, because Google does not consider every picture of a gun to be unsafe.
• Searching boobs won’t show explicit photos, but it may still show swimwear.

This is why technology alone isn’t enough. Students also need guidance and discussions about what they see.

What makes the biggest difference?
The most important safety measure is openness:

• Devices are used in open spaces.
• Headphones are only used when needed, otherwise audio should be heard.
• Students know what to do if they see something wrong: stop, and tell a trusted adult.

Will filters improve in the future?

Yes, filters keep getting better, and websites are slowly improving how they manage content. But the internet is huge and constantly changing. No filter can catch everything. That’s why we rely on a partnership between school, parents, and students.
Together, filters, supervision, and open conversations give our students the best protection while they learn to navigate the online world responsibly.