School Security

Kentucky District Implements Internet Filtering

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 03/19/10

Daviess County Public Schools (DCPS) of Owensboro, KY, has implemented the Netsweeper content filtering system to block students from accessing some content when they access the Internet.

With a database of more than 3 billion categorized URLs and growing, Netsweeper is designed to prevent school networks from delivering content to students that the school deems inappropriate.

Matthew Constant, director of instructional technology for DCPS, said the application "offered the most effective solution to manage this issue. Not only can we ensure that students use these devices productively while at school, the solution continues to filter according to each user's policy even when they leave the school."

Constant also commented on the value of a function that allows parents to re-customize Netsweeper's filtering for their children's use outside of school. This feature, he explained, "allows parents to open access to sites that are regularly blocked by the school's policies, to lock down Internet usage at a certain hour each night and to obtain detailed reporting regarding their child's Internet use."

DCPS said it has already completed the first of its two implementation phases, with the application now managing student Internet activity and security for the more than 3,100 laptops in its 1:1 computing program. Phase 2, scheduled for later this year, will encompass the district's remaining workstations, for a total of more than 6,500 district computers.