Background:
I took over a school where children had been given a huge degree of autonomy, and were expected to make safe choices. This included having an unfenced boundary with a deep stream hidden behind a line of high flax bushes. The potential for a five year old to sneak away and drown was obvious.
There was no filtering of internet access and no restrictions on access either. Desktop computers could be found hidden away in nooks around the school, such that if a duty teacher looked into a classroom, they would not be able to tell if a child was hidden round a corner accessing unsuitable material.
There was a system put in place where four senior teacher equivalents were told they were acting principals one day a week each. There were no DPs, and the co-principal arrangement was in name only, but they saw themselves as autonomous on "their day".
A class of year eight children were taught in a rented house down the road and round the corner. Their young, male teacher was left alone with students, groups of girls often worked in bedrooms, while most of the boys worked in the garage. It was a very dangerous situation for that young male teacher to be in - not to mention, for the girls also (and the boys using power tools unsupervised in the garage).
Problem:
Just after I started during a lunchtime, a group of year five and six boys accessed pornography featuring male on male oral sex. Some five and six year old boys came upon this activity, saw the images and were strongly impacted.
A short time later a six year was seen by a co-Principal dragging a five year old into the toilets and telling him "I'm going to suck your penis." She did not take this seriously, did not consider a six year old would only talk and act like this if they had been exposed to inappropriate material. She did not feel I needed to know as she saw herself as the principal for that day.
Impact:
A short while later a group of five and six year old boys were discovered performing oral sex acts on each other in the boys' toilets.
In one case, the boy's father had just suddenly died, causing huge distress in his home.
In another, the boy's single mother had just been subjected to a public shaming in her church for becoming pregnant while unwed. This also caused huge distress.
When these mums discovered what their sons had been involved in, they were absolutely devastated.
Outcome:
I was already in the process of dismantling the illegal co-Principalship arrangements. I sped that process up.
The co-Principal involved met with me and we reviewed her actions, her thinking, the outcomes and the impact. She realised the gravity of her mistake.
The classroom in a house was closed off, the rental contract terminated and the class moved back onsite to our school.
An internet filtering system was put in place at once.
Computers were moved out into the open where they were easily visible at all times.
Staff received guidance on the importance of internet safety.
Net-Safe ran courses for our staff and for our community.
Digital citizenship agreements were drawn up and signed by all students and staff.
Our grounds were fenced.
All our ICT, Cyber Safety and Digital Citizenship policies were reviewed by staff and Board. All were either overhauled or rewritten from scratch.
Reflection:
We can never protect all children from all pornography and/or objectionable content online. We can and must do our best though.
What has been seen can never be unseen. I teach my children the simple adage, "Rubbish in equals rubbish out."
If you access rubbish online it will lead to rubbish coming out. It will hurt you and could even poison you. If you come across something inappropriate, shut the lid or pull the plug and go and tell an adult.
There were no further incidents of children accessing inappropriate material in my time there.