21/10/2009

Ref: ES004

Supporting the Government’s call for better protection of children online, e-safe education is helping local authority professionals working in Children’s Services to pull back the curtains on e-safety issues with the launch of Be-safe™, the UK’s first collaborative safeguarding programme.

Providing a blend of analysis, training and forensic monitoring, the Be-safe™ programme has been created to help LAs in two key ways. Firstly to provide a measure of the effectiveness of existing ICT Acceptable Use Policy implementation and secondly, to establish and corroborate alternative intelligence sources which may be useful early warning indicators of threats to children and young people’s wellbeing.

The Be-safe™ programme kicks-off with a confidential* forensic review and report undertaken by specialists from Zentek Forensics. The review provides every LA with a measure of the effectiveness of their current e-safety approach and visibility of possible areas of vulnerability across its education establishments and care homes.

The Be-safe™ team will work closely with each LA to determine and scope individual terms of engagement and help establish a key and representative sample area.  As part of the forensic review, Zentek’s experts will examine ICT systems and record incidents of internet or computer misuse which fall outside of individual Acceptable Usage Policies (AUPs). This review will also uncover any inappropriate imagery originating from cameras and mobile phones, video media such as CDs or DVDs and images downloaded from unmonitored devices. 

Andrea Bradley, Managing Director of Zentek Forensics, comments: “To properly protect children, it is imperative that every professional working in Children’s Services is equipped with a thorough understanding of the e-safety issues faced by each local authority. A thorough forensic review will enable LAs to create better policies and identify where education efforts need to be focused in order to resolve e-safety issues.”

To assist an LA following the initial review phase, Be-safe™ offers a range of services including a Senior Leadership Training Program and e-safety workshops to ensure that intelligence-led e-safety services can be effectively deployed within a school or Local Authority. Technology specialists from e-safe education, the UK’s first company to offer real-time forensic monitoring as a “managed service”, will also work with the LA to implement technology to deliver a universal and targeted protection that reflects an LA’s specific conditions and diversity.

Mark Donkersley, Managing Director of e-safe education, comments: “Our objective is to provide LAs with visibility of their e-safety issues and to educate institutional leaders in the value of embracing proactive monitoring of the ICT environment as a means of delivering enhanced protection for children and young people. By delivering accurate, real-time visibility of ICT misuse, we are providing an LA with additional intelligence to enable accurate and early intervention. The Be-safe™ programme is a comprehensive support service to achieve ultimate protection for children in the online and digital world.”

Be-safe™ is launching on stand 56 at The National Children & Adults Services Conference 2009 at the Harrogate International Centre, Harrogate which runs from 21 to 23 October 2009.

For further information about Be-safe™ please visit the web site at www.esafeeducation.co.uk, tel: 08444 128623 or e-mail Be-safe@esafeeducation.co.uk.

back to news »