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Information Systems
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by ChancellorIronCat76
Lee Gaudreau
Liberty University | CSCI 1561
INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
Research Objectives
•
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted in 2000 and mandates that any school or library that receives federal funding must block dangerous and inappropriate content for minors. CIPA further mandates the monitoring of Internet usage.
•
These requirements necessitate the implementation of policies and systems to block dangerous and inappropriate Internet content. The ability to monitor the efficacy of these systems is also needed.
•
A vast array of solutions is available to meet these needs for an educational institution.
Along with this variety of solutions also come multiple methods of filtering and monitoring Internet content.
•
Many of the solutions available provide detailed logging of user activity and reporting
of not only attempts to access objectionable material, but also the reporting of potential safety issues found in online communications and files.
•
An evaluation of providers and methodologies will be conducted to provide insight and guidance in selecting an appropriate solution.
The Children's Internet Protection Act, abbreviated as CIPA, is a federal law in the United
States that was put into effect in the year 2000. CIPA requires educational institutions and
libraries that receive federal funding, including ERATE for Internet connectivity, to implement
Internet filtering and other security measures. These measures are designed to safeguard
children from encountering inappropriate and potentially harmful online content. (Children’s
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
Internet Protection Act (CIPA), 2019). The enactment of this law aimed to respond to mounting
concerns regarding children's exposure to the aforementioned inappropriate and harmful online
content.
Through the use of mandated filtering technologies to block explicit and harmful content
such as obscene and dangerous material, the goal of online safety for minors can be achieved.
Any school or library that receives federal funding is required to not only filter the Internet
content of minors but to also have the ability to monitor Internet activity and the efficacy of the
filtering in place. (
Children’s Internet Protec1on Act (CIPA)
, 2019). This statement leaves the topic of filtering
open to various interpretations. Proverbs 15:22 says "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many
advisers they succeed." (Bible, NIV), it is in this area of implementing a CIPA-compliant solution,
that the involvement of numerous departments within an institution is required.
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires the blocking of not only objectionable
content but also dangerous content. Given the meteoric rise in online threats, cybersecurity
measures that are perhaps considered more appropriate for a business must be considered and
included in a filtering solution. Not only are schools becoming prime targets of ransomware
attacks, like the Baltimore County Schools in November of 2020 (Portale, 2022) but student
information itself is valuable to hackers. Young students are ideal candidates for identity theft
since their social security numbers are often unused, and credit monitoring for minors is rarely
if ever, employed. Individuals below the age of 18 generally lack credit reports, which
unfortunately leaves them as prime targets for fraudsters to apply for credit and secure loans in
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
their name. This identity theft may remain undiscovered for years, often only coming to light
when the child reaches young adulthood. (Equifax, 2023)
The number of filtering options available to an institution is staggering. Most of the
products available provide the same basic service of filtering Internet content and reporting, but
some go further than that and offer the ability to monitor student safety and online activities.
Securly, for example not only filters and logs Internet activity such as terms searched for and
website visits like every Internet filtering program should but offers several other additional
services. These include online student wellness monitoring, monitoring of online files and
messaging, classroom management, device management, visitor management, and others.
Their method of filtering includes an agent installed on the devices as well as DNS-based
filtering for devices without a client installed. Both methods employ SSL decryption and the
installation of a certificate of the user's device. (
Securly - the Student Safety Company
, n.d.).
This use of SSL, or Secure Socket Layer decryption is commonly referred to as
“
Surveillanceware”
. (Jamf, 2023)
Another option for Internet filtering available to organizations that use Apple products and
the JAMF management platform is JAMF Protect. This product is included because the
company’s approach to filtering is one that puts the privacy of the student first. It does not
collect or report information about individuals, it reports aggregate information anonymously.
This means that you will not see the activity of an individual, but rather the number of users
that have visited various categories, the numbers of users blocked, and so forth. (Jamf, 2023)
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
Literature Search Results
A number of Internet filtering companies were evaluated and as previously stated, they
all met the CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) requirement of blocking objectionable and
potentially harmful Internet content. The platforms evaluated were Securly, LightSpeed, Gaggle,
Bark, Linewize, GoGuardian, JAMF Protect, and Cisco Umbrella.
The various companies do not provide their services in the same manner. Securly,
Lightspeed, Gaggle, Bark, Linewize, and GoGuardian offer user and device level monitoring,
extending further to “Safety Alert” reporting. Some companies go further, such as Securly, and
offer the ability to map associated private social media accounts to students to attempt to
identify concerns. This method of protection can collectively be called surveillanceware due to
the level of monitoring of an individual’s online activities. This level of monitoring extends
beyond the blocking of objectionable content mandated by the Children’s Internet Protection Act
(CIPA) and encompasses safety monitoring and activities potentially outside of traditional school
boundaries. With the ability to scan a student’s Google Drive contents, as is available from
Securly and GoGuardian (
Securly - the Student Safety Company
, n.d.), goes far beyond the
scope defined by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). This scanning of student files is
done to search for concerning terms and phrases that may indicate harmful activities such as
bullying, self-harm, substance abuse, and suicide.
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
This level of monitoring brings up a number of privacy concerns, especially because it is
employed on minors. The use of SSL Decryption to effect the necessary level of detail that these
kinds of services provides expands beyond the mandated protections of CIPA into every online
activity performed by every user at the organization. Every web search, every website
connected to, and every packet sent to and from a user's device is decrypted and analyzed by
the Internet filtering service. This includes online shopping, online banking, and visits to a
medical website. This information must be stored for some period of time in order to generate
useful activity logs and reports. The fact that this information is recorded and stored means
that that information is susceptible to being exploited or sold. The Personal Identifiable
Information (PII) of minors has a lot of value to hackers and schools are prime targets for
obtaining this information as well as being popular targets for ransomware. (Portale, 2022) The
fresh, unused Social Security Numbers of minors are valuable to hackers, making a school a
tempting target. (Equifax, 2023). Identity theft requires a number of pieces to accomplish
beyond just a Social Security Number, and Internet activity can provide much of that
information.
In addition to hackers, is the value of a student’s Internet activity to advertisers.
Facebook has based its entire business model on selling your information to advertisers. More
than one company has been accused of selling student information to third parties, Securly
being perhaps the most recent. (
Class-Action Lawsuit Says Securly Collected, Sold Student
Location Data, Video History Without Consent -- THE Journal
, 2023). In Proverbs 4:23 King
Solomon said, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”. (Bible, NIV) It is
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
amazing what people will search for online and it can be argued that the selling of this
information exposes the private parts, the heart, of a person to anonymous entities for the
pursuit of profit. The simple act of searching for information about a medication could lead to
unwanted ads for that medication and ones similar to it, likely associating one or more medical
conditions with it. When this information is collected in a school environment that employs a
filtering platform that scans for concerning keywords could alert school officials to a condition
that is embarrassing or does not affect the minor conducting the search. This second one
applies particularly during certain times of the year in Health classes. As drugs, medical
conditions, and other potentially concerning topics are covered in class, students invariably
conduct online research as part of the class. The number of alerts sent to the school staff
understandably increases.
This increase in reports can be a problem in and of itself. These false alarms can
overwhelm administrators and could lead to legitimate, concerning incidents that should be
addressed to be missed. This issue is not unique to student safety programs but to many
security monitoring and reporting systems. (Johnson & Easttom, 2020)
The full reporting model employed by platforms such as Securly, LightSpeed, and
GoGuardian has a number of pros and cons to consider. One positive aspect of full reporting is
the impact on Academic integrity. If a student is suspected of cheating, that student's Internet
activity can be used to confirm the suspected behavior or even exonerate them. Student safety
is another positive aspect of full reporting. Guidance counselors can use the alerts of detected
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
concerning terms, such as suicide or murder to alert them of a student possibly in distress and
reach out the student and have a conversation with them. Knowing that a student is
researching suicide online could lead to that student getting the support they need and avert a
tragedy. Being alerted to a student researching firearms or explosives could allow the
administration to reach out to that student and prevent another horrific act of school violence
that has become an almost daily occurrence in recent years. The Moravian faith is guided by
three rules that should guide what we do in life. “In essentials, unity, in nonessentials, liberty;
and in all things, love.” (Riess, 2018). The last part, in All Things Love, describes the safety
benefits of employing an Internet filtering solution that includes full reporting. Protecting
students from harming themselves or others is loving them as Jesus instructs us in John 13:34
“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (Bible, NIV)
There are also potentially negative aspects of using a full reporting model. Services that
employ full reporting, or surveillanceware, must store and secure the student and faculty
Internet browsing data that is collected. If the company storing this data is compromised, this
stored data could potentially be stolen and released. Additionally, the company itself could sell
this information to third parties for profit without the individual user's consent, as Securly is
alleged of doing. (
Class-Action Lawsuit Says Securly Collected, Sold Student Location Data, Video
History Without Consent -- THE Journal
, 2023) Services such as JAMF do not employ the full reporting described earlier and are
therefore described as more privacy friendly. (Jamf, 2023). Another service that does not
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
employ full reporting is Cisco Umbrella. In the case of JAMF, an agent is installed on the device
that informs the filter which filtering rules to apply. In the case of Cisco Umbrella, DNS based
filtering is employed without SSL decryption. Cisco Umbrella only reports on DNS queries and
so is not full reporting. Cisco Umbrella does have an offering that uses a proxy with DNS to
provide full reporting as well. This lack of full reporting and collection of detailed activity does
meet the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act because objectional material is
blocked and the efficacy of the filtering can be monitored with aggregate data. When
employing DNS filtering, the attempt to access a blocked site would be caught without
decrypting and recording all of the Internet activity of a student or faculty member.
Systems that do not employ full reporting do not provide the administration with who
tried to go to a blocked site, just that access to the site was blocked. That satisfies the
requirement of blocking objectionable and dangerous content as mandated by the Children’s
Internet Protect Act as well as providing the school administration with information about
where on the Internet users are going. The administration does have the ability to see how the
Internet is being used and abused, just not by whom.
A potential negative aspect of this type of reporting is that it does not provide the safety
reporting provided by full reporting. While the searches for firearms or suicide may be blocked,
the administration is not informed of who performed the blocked search. While the potentially
dangerous search was prevented and is arguably a good result, there is no ability to
communicate with the person and investigate the activity further.
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
Conclusions
It became clear in my research that the first decision that must be made when selecting
an Internet Filtering solution is to determine what level of reporting the institution requires.
This is one aspect of the solution that cannot be modified with some solutions. It also became
clear that the types of reporting can be broken down into two main types. A solution provides
either full reporting or it does not. The decision as to which method is appropriate for an
institution is similar to any information security system or policy in that it is informed by the
culture of the institution. (Johnson & Easttom, 2020)
Does the educational organization wish to monitor and log all the activity of their
students and staff? Does their constituency desire or require this level of monitoring and
reporting? In the case of an educational institution, this would be the parents of the students.
In a public school, this requirement would most likely come from the school district, but in the
case of a private or independent school, the desires of the parents hold much more weight as
they have the ability to choose not to send their children to that institution.
Perhaps the institution prefers to prioritize student privacy in its institutional culture. In
this modern age, our privacy is under constant attack and our lives are becoming increasingly
less private. An institution may prefer to teach their students what is right and how to act
appropriately online and leave it in the hands of the students to do so. The Internet filtering
platform can provide students with the safety to use the Internet safely thanks to the blocking
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
of dangerous and objectionable content without potentially compromising their privacy and
educational freedom.
The decision to use a solution that employs the full reporting model of filtering allows an
educational organization to add a number of safety monitoring pieces to its solution. The value
of these can be seen almost daily in the news with the increase in school violence and teen
suicide. Over the past decade, the incidents of teen suicide have increased, especially among
students of color. In a recent survey, the findings indicate that the proportion of high school
students who reported seriously contemplating suicide in the past year has risen to 22%,
marking an increase from 16% in 2011. Furthermore, 18% disclosed having formulated a suicide
plan, while 10% acknowledged having made at least one suicide attempt, contrasting with 13%
and 8% in the respective categories a decade ago. These heightened suicide-related trends were
observed across all demographic categories, including race, ethnicity, and gender, with specific
groups facing a more pronounced surge in risk compared to others. (Akkas, 2023)
We have all seen the sickening rise in school violence in recent years. School shootings
are becoming a regular occurrence. The safety monitoring provided by Internet filtering
systems such as Securly and GoGuardian could help an educational institution prevent an act of
violence or self-harm by intervening early on and getting the students the help that they need. Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed”
(Bible, NIV). This often-cited verse holds two meanings in the case of Internet filtering solutions.
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
In one sense it speaks to the importance of involving multiple stakeholders in the selection and
implementation of an Internet Filtering solution. There are legal considerations that must be
taken into account along with the operational and educational impact that an Internet filtering
solution will have on the daily activities of the educational institution. The IT staff must have
the involvement, guidance, and support of the staff and administration in successfully deploying
an effective solution. The second part is the multiple pieces available. To achieve the required
compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, any CIPA-compliant filtering solution will
do. If the educational organization desires to provide mental health and safety to its students
and faculty, a system that provides full reporting and safety monitoring is needed. There is no
one-size-fits-all solution out there.
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
Bibliography
Johnson, R., & Easttom, C. (2020). Security policies and implementation issues
. Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
(Johnson & Easttom, 2020)
Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
. (2019, December 30). Federal Communications Commission. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act
(
Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
, 2019)
Portale, S. (2022, November 28). ISI in the news: School systems have become prime targets for hackers. Here’s why. - JHU Information Security Institute
. JHU Information Security Institute. https://isi.jhu.edu/2022/11/28/isi-in-the-news-school-systems-have-become-
prime-targets-for-hackers-heres-why/
(Portale, 2022)
Equifax. (2023). Freezing your child’s credit Report: FAQ. www.equifax.com
. https://www.equifax.com/personal/education/identity-theft/articles/-/learn/freezing-your-
childs-credit-report-faq/#:~:text=Consumers%20under%20the%20age%20of,child%20is
%20a%20young%20adult.
(Equifax, 2023)
Securly - The Student Safety Company
. (n.d.). Securly. https://securly.com/
Jamf. (2023, September 26). Technology in schools: Keeping students safe without surveillance school | Security
. https://www.jamf.com/resources/white-papers/technology-in-schools-
keeping-students-safe-without-surveillance/?
utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=education-
essentials&utm_content=2023-09-
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INTERNET FILTERING SYSTEMS CONSIDERATIONS
26_shared_btnb&mkt_tok=NzA0LVZZUC01MjcAAAGOcMUPhSO6azlrIMmzMMp0G
qNEzjbqnlOBnyoDq7XociO4L9GtB_eZtMpElebl8MVaDyk70A4c5csWOv4RM_rzEH
VRoObv4Mm99ktou2__2R8
Class-Action lawsuit says Securly collected, sold student location data, video history without consent -- THE Journal
. (2023, July 20). THE Journal. https://thejournal.com/articles/2023/07/20/class-action-lawsuit-says-securly-collected-
sold-student-location-data-video-history.aspx?
s=the_nu_200723&oly_enc_id=5902I9527589E1Y&m=1
Riess, M. (2018). The Moravian Church: our faith, our history and our ministry. Moravian Church in America
. https://www.moravian.org/2018/06/the-moravian-church-our-faith-
our-history-and-our-ministry/
Akkas, F. (2023). Youth suicide risk increased over past decade. The Pew Charitable Trusts
. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/03/03/youth-suicide-
risk-increased-over-past-decade
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