NetSupport DNA - Safeguarding feature update

[Al_NetSupport]

I am pleased to advise that NetSupport DNA 4.2 has been released featuring a range of great new enhancements.

 

The Safeguarding module in particular now features lots of great new updates.

 

 

 

To reduce workload for IT staff the DNA console features separate Safeguarding User and Safeguarding Admin roles. In practice this means while a regular DNA Admin user sees this when they log in :

 

 

 

A Safeguarding Admin, only sees their module and is then able to manage Keywords, activity, alerts received and track any concerns flagged. This seems to be the best outcome for both IT staff and Safeguarding leads.

 

 

 

From the Safeguarding console, you can monitor keyword and phrase activity, to see what has triggered, this can be viewed in a simple word cloud, where you can see the most active phrases for a selected period, and then click any phrase to see when it was triggered and view supporting details and screenshots.

 

 

As well as managing the keyword and phrase list, which you can now export your own additional phrases to share with other schools and we have also added the option to exclude certain applications from monitoring, so perhaps Powerpoint, Excel and so on are deemed to not provide a platform for a safeguarding risk and as such you can exclude false triggers created during valid school work. We have also added the option to customise how we monitor Keyword and Phrase activity : What a student types, what a student copies and what is in the title of a web page they access ( by default all three options are enabled)

 

 

In addition to the streamlined keyword and phrase monitoring, the latest updated ticks another safeguarding box with the addition of Safeguarding resources. Once the feature is enabled, on each Student PC they can access from their DNA system tray icon a link to relevant safeguarding resources for their region. This includes websites and phone numbers for Childline, askFrank and many more. The safeguarding admins can customise this list themselves to add their own on-line resources too.

 

 

The process for a child to report a concern themselves to a member of staff has been designed to be as simple and manageable as possible, using the same system tray icon (if the option is enabled), a student can selected a member of staff from the list provided and send them a concern they might have. The systems tracks these, alerts the member of staff ( and the safeguarding admins) when a concern is raised and if one is left unopened and then provides a simple UI for tracking notes and actions. All content in this section is encrypted in the database.

 

 

Finally as well as all of the on screen reports, we have also included some additional Crystal Reports so that weekly or monthly management reports can be created as and when needed.