Sandown High School on the Isle of Wight has closed its website after links to pornography and drugs were discovered on the parents’ forum.  Other links guided parents towards online casinos and indecent images

Cath Scallon, the deputy headteacher at Sandown High School, said spam rather than parents or pupils appeared to be to blame.

“It was the parents’ forum which was affected. We did discuss whether to have it password-protected but we decided to leave it open so prospective parents could look at it,” she said.

“It’s a shame because it was a positive thing with lots of interesting threads such as about school instruments and the school uniform.

“But it appears that these links were added through Internet spam and if you do not check a site every 10 seconds this is what can happen.

“We have taken it off for the moment because we do not want people to think these are the sorts of things we condone.”

Link to Sandown High School Website

In edition this shocking news comes after the government announced a New Review to Protect Families Surfing Online

The objectives of the review are:  To assess the effectiveness and adequacy of existing measures to help prevent children from being exposed to such material and help parents understand and manage the risks of access to inappropriate content, and to make recommendations for improvements or additional action.

Of the Review Dr Tanya Byron states:

“The internet is a powerful and positive tool for children in terms of their learning and ongoing development.  However, we must all enable our children to use the possibility presented by the internet in a way that is both positive and safe. Therefore it is essential that parents and anyone involved in the care and development of young people are familiar with the material they will access and view and of the potential and actual risks therein.”

Click HERE to View:  New Review to Protect Families Surfing Online Island Pulse : Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 9:29 am.

 

Island Pulse.