Pupils’ access to inappropriate web content: the example of primary schools in Slupsk

Abstract

The publication is a summary of the pilot studies carried out by Comdrev.PL company, a provider of a service named PROTECTI, from February to April 2018 in four primary schools in Slupsk. The study’s objective was to monitor pupils’ online activities while at school and using the school network. The author made a hypothesis that primary school pupils, while at school, do visit inappropriate websites. The analysis of the visited pages, based on the thematic catalogue by Comdrew.PL, shown that inappropriate content has indeed been accessed. The scale of the phenomenon turned out to be worrying, thus, as early as within the study duration, school authorities decided to take countermeasures by blocking access to inappropriate content. Therefore, the analysis included both the inappropriate content that the pupils actually viewed from February to April 2018 and the content they wanted to visit at that time but access to it was blocked. The fundamental conclusion of the research is that it is necessary to filter the content available in the school network and to block access to the inappropriate content so as to ensure the proper realization of the school’s educational tasks.