...to kick up a fuss because DS (7) was confronted with (soft) porn on school's iPad?

[allrightluv]

DS is 7. He and a friend were using the school's new iPads in class. His friend googled some explicit words and, hey presto, they stumbled across some soft porn... Luckily only breasts, butts but no genitalia. But still: This should't happen at school!!! Can't decide how enraged I should be about this...

His friend googled some explicit words
So after you have read the riot act to your DS for messing about on the iPad when they he and his friend should have been working, ask the teacher about levels of internet security at school.
Explain that your child and his friend were messing about, that you are disgusted with them both but that they easily gained access to what should be a restricted site/image.

I expect it is difficult to decide what is and isnt allowed..when setting the filters, so that innocent images can still be found.

Kids are very adept at getting around filters anyway.

'Confronted with', no. Searched for, yes.

Your focus shouldn't be on the school but on reminding your DS about appropriate behaviour.

Whether or not you say anything to the school, this is definitely an opportunity to have the 'be careful what you Google' talk with your son.

At DS1's (secondary) school, any searches like this get flagged up by the IT dpt (my friend works there and he did explain how, but it went in one ear and out the other) and there are repercussions for the child who did the search.

Sounds like the filters maybe haven't been set correctly or some smart arse has managed to undo them.

I would mention it to the school so that do the settings correctly and give your ds a talking to.

What words did they google?

You said it yourself- This shouldn't happen at school!

So have a word with your son.

He was only "confronted" with the images because he googled them!

One of the words was "nude" - if the settings had been right, that should have been blocked. DS knows what not to do on the internet and has never attempted anything of the sort himself. I'm not blaming his friend, but come on, how hard is it for a kid not to tag along? In all honesty, who would have actually stopped their friend? I certainly would't have when I was a child!

or "naked", can't remember.

The LEA needs to upgrade its filters then, Google Images is blocked on the children's logins in my school, the filters are over zealous in some situations.
If he has a personal login, the school can trace exactly what he googled and why the site was allowed, then they can block it.
They can also remove his access to the internet until he learns how to be responsible.

seriously, it's the human body. Unless it was videos of actual porn, pictures of boob's or bum's aren't exactly thing's to flip out about.

I used to teach in a school which had a policy of using no filters at all. While I think this is a bit too liberal i agree with the sentiment. Children need to understand that there is inappropriate content on the internet and what to do if they come across something that makes them uncomfortable. They are unlikely to be able to do this if we over protect them and filters are never going to be able to block all unsuitable content. As children should always be supervised at home and at school on the internet the risk of harm is negligible. Use this as an opportunity to educate your son about internet use and of course concentrating in class

Naked is blocked at our work.

...not that I've tried accessing the lovely Naked Wines website or anything!

Unless it's Wines that is blocked. Hmm.

Tea that's a very interesting approach actually, I think I approve.

OP you should mention this to school of course. But you should not be enraged, no.

Google images is blocked at my school.

Also the naked body isn't porn. It's just a naked body.

I would be more concerned my 7yo was googling explicit words tbh.

I tried googling winter saints for information on St Nicolas, Lucy, Thomas etc.
Came up as Blocked Cult Occult.
Can't google and access anything vaguely rude, and Russian birds will only give you the feathered variety.

DSs friend managed to override the school filters by goggling "naked Granny" during lunch club at Junior school. DS saw the result - it was not pretty.

You need to flag this up with the school. If they school know it happened they should have contacted you. I have been told in my LA, someone somewhere monitors all use on schools computers, and would know exactly who logged on and googled what.

I just think if we remove all risk from our children's lives we are depriving them of the opportunity to learn to manage it for themselves

I wouldn't kick up a fuss at the school. However, you would need to tell DC what's appropriate and what isn't. Also, mention it to his friend's mum.

You probably need to mention it to the school to check their filters.

He was only "confronted" by what he was looking for, wasn't he? By all means have a word with the school to let them know how readily your ds found the undoubtedly inappropriate content but don't make a huge fuss. After all, I'm sure his teacher hadn't instructed them to Google up what they discovered.

I would definitely talk to the school, I would expect them to check their filters and reinforce the 'appropriate internet use' message- with the threat of removing internet access if necessary.

I'd also be giving my DC a very stern talk if one of mine did that- or went along with it.

I was posting something the other day and couldn't remember the correct spelling for bizarre and bazaar. I can never remember which one is right.

Anyway all I can say is don't google bizarre bazaar like I did because there is it seems a site that covers porn based bizarreness.