Adult websites on BYOD

[DavePa]

What would you do in this situation:

 

Staff member uses a personally owned device at home to connect to an adult site and then comes to work and connects to the BYOD which immedialty tries to update therefore triggering Smoothwall alerts.

 

There is no suggestion that they actvely opened the web page whilst at work and I would be confident that it's something they have looked at when at home and have left the page open in the browser. On the one hand they didn't reach the site as Smoothwall blocked it but on the other there are now Smoothwall alerts with their name on them.

 

Do you block their device from BYOD? Have a quiet word with them? Report it to senior management?

 

What if it was a student?

 

I'm not talking about anything illegal but certainly objectionable - but who defines what is and is not objectionable? There is a vast amount of material on Youtube that could not be shown on TV before 9pm and a fair amount that should be restricted to seedy theatres in out of the way places. Sure, you need to sign in to see it but anybody can sign up to Youtube and claim to be 18

 

For information, we are an FE college offering apprenticeships so no students under 16 and the majority are 18+

 

Please feel free to move to behind the red door, I was 50/50 about where to put this

[pcstru]

I would throw it upstairs (ask my boss). I'm not sure how I could tell the difference between them deliberately trying to access a page and an 'app' phoning home. My concern would be that while this might not be serious in and of itself, there may be issues I am unaware of which in context could make this more serious. At the end of the day none of that is my call so inform and escalate.

[elsiegee40]

At the end of the day none of that is my call so inform and escalate.

 

This. A serious alert has been raised. It is not your call.

 

It has to be escalated to your Designated Safeguarding Lead and what happens next is their problem. You may or may not hear anything further.

 

The age of your students is irrelevant. Vulnerable people are not just those up to the age of 18.

Edited November 25, 2016 by elsiegee40

[Achandler]

Block the device and tell your boss. Might be nothing to serious and they might be genuinely mortified about it, but it could have been worse and it could be a piece of a larger jigsaw you might be unaware of.

 

Doing nothing is hardly an option.

 

But be honest with your boss, about why you think it has happened, e.g. not deliberate etc.

[DavePa]

There are 7 'hits' to the site across the space of 2 seconds and it's the 1st traffic recorded for the device which is why I think it's been done elsewhere and recorded here when they connected to our BYOD. I've done it myself (with a job search site, not an adult site!) when opening my phone browser and realising I hadn't closed it down so there is my job search...since then I don't use the BYOD and stick to my own 4g instead!

[Achandler]

Sadly intentional or not, it still needs to be taken seriosuly until deemed otherwise, just in case.

[pete]

For the students, we have these signs:

 

CloseYourTabs.pdf

 

For staff, we escalate it and someone has a word with them.

[DavePa]

Thanks all for the feedback, how about this then...

 

Member of staff in own time, using own device at own home access a dating ste where there are pictures of naked people then comes to work with that image on their device thus making us aware of it

Member of staff in own time reads '50 shades of grey' then comes to work and tells other members of staff about it thus making us aware of it

 

One has pictures that can be seen on TV after 9pm, the other describes (at least the little I read) some fairly hardcore acts. Why is one an issue and the other not? Or are they both issues?

Edited November 25, 2016 by DavePa
typo!

[pete]

Thanks all for the feedback, how about this then...

 

Member of staff in own time, using own device at own home access a dating ste where there are pictures of naked people then comes to work with that image on their device thus making us aware of it

Member of staff in own time reads '50 shades of grey' then comes to work and tells other members of staff about it thus making us aware of it

 

One has pictures that can be seen on TV after 9pm, the other describes (at least the little I read) some fairly hardcore acts. Why is one an issue and the other not? Or are they both issues?

 

Book clubs pander to Daily Mail values, while porn/dating sites are "sordid"?

 

If a bunch of consenting adults out of earshot of the kids decide at lunchbreak to discuss eclectic uses for elastic bands amongst themselves, I don't see a problem provided they're not weirding out other people.

 

If the same bunch of consenting adults have signed an agreement saying "I won't break the AUP" and then (by having terrible IT skills/knowledge/common sense) break the AUP then they're going to potentially weird out at least the IT staff (who they know will be alerted to their activities).

[Iain.Faulkner]

We seem to be getting a lot of this at the moment with our 6th Form students. Certainly Smoothwall is logging that they are attempting to access websites of questionable content for a couple of seconds (normally during registration) on their personal device.

 

I think it's similar to what you've said though, that they are opening the sites at home and when they connect to the BYOD wireless, the tabs refresh generating the logs. Ultimately though, it's not for me to decide what happens to this and we follow the school safeguarding policies.

[crc-ict]

Thanks all for the feedback, how about this then...

 

Member of staff in own time, using own device at own home access a dating ste where there are pictures of naked people then comes to work with that image on their device thus making us aware of it

Member of staff in own time reads '50 shades of grey' then comes to work and tells other members of staff about it thus making us aware of it

 

One has pictures that can be seen on TV after 9pm, the other describes (at least the little I read) some fairly hardcore acts. Why is one an issue and the other not? Or are they both issues?

 

This is typical of the double standards that exist though, isn't it?

 

Like how it seems to be acceptable for female staff to 'phwoar' away in the staffroom when the local Fire Brigade come in, for example, but if male staff were to make similar comments about female visitors it would be dealt with harshly.

[elsiegee40]

Thanks all for the feedback, how about this then...

 

Member of staff in own time, using own device at own home access a dating ste where there are pictures of naked people then comes to work with that image on their device thus making us aware of it

Member of staff in own time reads '50 shades of grey' then comes to work and tells other members of staff about it thus making us aware of it

 

One has pictures that can be seen on TV after 9pm, the other describes (at least the little I read) some fairly hardcore acts. Why is one an issue and the other not? Or are they both issues?

 

Regardless it is only your problem in that you must report it as your system has flagged an issue.

 

It's up to the DSL to decide what, if anything, to do.

 

You cannot and will not know the full history behind any incident your system reports. It's there for a reason. Dismissing something as probably OK could result in a law case the school doesn't want. It just isn't the decision of anyone other than the DSL.

[rad]

Report it, wash your hands of it. Your job done.