The trust that society puts on the education system can be overwhelming. Expectations are high. More computers and faster Internet access are easy to deploy compared to enforcing appropriate Internet use and protection (by their very nature, young minds look for ways around controls). New content appears hourly on the Internet, providing a richness of educational resources never before seen by humanity, as well as, hundreds of new porn, gambling, racial, drug, and cheating sites. How can you hope to keep up?

Internet filtering and protocol blocking has brought peace of mind to many schools and boards. It is an important piece of an education system's security and user management solution. Critical issues generally revolve around how new URLs are categorized and handled, bandwidth protection, and robust logging with reporting.

Netsweeper offers an outstanding solution in an education environment. With one of the largest web site databases out there and our on demand categorization of new web sites (within a few seconds), we prevent what may seem like cool, but inappropriate, web sites from spreading through the student body like wild fire. Unlike systems that update categorizations daily or even weekly, we react to the first student that types in a new web site. Instant messaging and file downloads can be managed, preserving bandwidth. Logging and reporting provides a sound historical record to identify trends and to support corrective actions.

Many governments either directly or indirectly impose standards regarding security and Internet use at schools. These standards have the students' and schools' best interest at heart, but can feel stringent and inflexible. In some cases you may wonder who came up with these seemingly unattainable standards? If you could meet the standard, it would bring a sense of relief and pride. And would let you get on with operations.

Many schools and boards are faced with similar situations, regardless of what country, province or state they are in, or what level of schooling they provide. They looked for systems that could handle the bandwidth curve unique to a school system and the different needs of the student body from kindergarten to university. They needed a solution that works, that the school can wear as a badge – they have achieved compliance.

Our Internet filtering technology has deep roots in the education institutions in Europe and North America. We understand the unique needs of a school environment and the notion of meeting compliance expectations and its place as a badge of honour. We offer categories that you can use to address the filtering needs of the student and teacher body. We are available pre- and post-compliancy testing to ensure that you pass testing and meet the objectives of the standards. Tuning and adjustment for compliance are included in all our product deployments. We want you to feel good about your Internet filtering solution.

Cost of Deployment and Ease of Administration

Computer use and Internet access is a notable budget item for any institution with the number of users a typical school or school board has. And where else can you have a group where so many users think it is fun (and appropriate?) to try to hack the system? Regulators, parent groups, students, and teachers have apparently conflicting expectations. There is no universal system and so the administration of each system becomes important. It seems logical that easier administration equals reduced time and expense, freeing both up for use elsewhere.

Is there an organization out there that hasn't regretted a software purchase based on what they ultimately had to invest either to get it integrated or to keep it running? Schools need to buy Internet filtering solutions and not have to endure ongoing development or integration projects.

A considerable number of school boards, individual schools, and 3rd-party service providers to schools have found that Netsweeper solutions nicely balance technology and administration. Cost of deployment is predictable and contained.