Kids In North East Exposed To Shocking, Violent And Adult Material At School

More than half of children in the North East have accessed unsuitable websites on school computers.

New research from technology and telecoms business Daisy Group reveals children between 11 and 16 have been exposed to violent, shocking and adult material.

The report shows half of schools are struggling to keep up with increasing ICT-related demands made of them like censorship and reliable internet connection. It claims many teachers are being left to work with out-of-date infrastructure when schools don’t upgrade their systems and those that do often get their ‘shopping’ criteria wrong.

Steven O’Connell is the managing director at Advantex Tech Network Solutions who provide IT services to schools in the North East. He told TFM that it’s not just about awareness among teachers but cheap security systems are easily outsmarted by tech-savvy kids.

Steven said:

“There’s too many little companies, one man bands that do it on the cheap. The schools look at the figure and think they can get that for so much less than another company but it’s not improving the service for the children. It’s not protecting them. The school could be saving £2000 a year but the kids are surfing inappropriate websites and the equipment is not fit for purpose.”

“It isn’t difficult to stop them from getting to these sites but these days kids are so far ahead and it is really difficult to control it if the right policies and procedures and equipment isn’t put in place. Children will inevitably do what children have always done, they’ll try and beat the system.”