INTERNET SAFETY POLICY

Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires Schools and libraries to have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures. As a result of collecting certain federal funding, we must comply with this act.

The protection measures must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are obscene and harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors).

In order for UNIS to be subject to CIPA, we have two additional certification requirements:

• UNIS’ Internet safety policies includes monitoring the online activities of minors

• As required by the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, UNIS provides for educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response.

In order to limit access by minors to inappropriate matter on internet, UNIS follows an Internet Filtering Policy. This Policy:

• Prevents user access over UNIS' network to inappropriate material via the Internet

• Prevents unauthorized access and other unlawful online activity;

• Complies with federal and state laws.

Technology protection measures (or “Internet filters”) are used to block transmission, access or publication of content that prohibited by “UNIS Internet Filtering Policy”. To block or filter Internet, UNIS is using Securly, an education focused DNS filter, as well as a Palo Alto firewall system on site. For Chromebooks, UNIS is using GoGuardian.

Even though “Internet filters” can not be guaranteed to be 100% effective, UNIS will continue to take precautions for this type of prohibited material on all equipment that is part of the school’s network.

UNIS' Internet Filtering Policy mission is guided by these principles:

• To provide access to materials that will enrich and support the curriculum and educational needs of users, taking into consideration the varied interests, abilities, learning styles, maturity levels, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.

• To provide access to materials that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge and ethical standards and that will develop literary, cultural, and esthetic appreciation.

• To provide a background of information which will enable students to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.

• To provide access to materials on opposing sides of controversial issues so that the users may develop, under guidance, the practice of critical analysis.

• To provide access to materials which realistically represent our pluralistic, multilingual and multicultural community and reflect the contributions made by all groups and individuals to the World heritage.

• To provide access to other kinds of content that might not be used for educational purpose but are not considered inappropriate (as listed in the UNIS Internet Filtering policy) and compliant with federal and state law.

The Internet offers a large variety of content and a large diversity of social networks with uneven interest. Not all will provide access to equally valuable content used for educational purpose.

UNIS agreed on the fact that “filtering beyond CIPA’s requirements results in clear missed opportunities to prepare students to be responsible users, consumers, and producers of online content and resources [...] Limits on access to the wide range of internet-based resources during students’ formative years are closing doors to future opportunity.”

• In Junior School students do not have access to UNIS email. This access is granted starting the first year in Middle School. This said, teachers in Junior 4 have the opportunity to request that the IT department facilitate the usage of emails accounts by J4 students starting the second term of the school year.

• Students in Middle School and High School access to multiple tools to communicate (email, hangout, Schoology, etc…). They have the opportunity to open Social Media accounts using the UNIS email address. Usage of emails is guided by UNIS’ email policy.

An authorized person may disable the blocking or filtering measure during use by an adult to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes.

GoGuardian allows to set up specific protection or restriction based on the user. OpenDNS and the Palo Alto firewall are therefore used as a filtering system applied for faculty, staff, admin and any students using non Chrome OS devices, while GoGuardian is adding an extra layer of flexible security based on each grade for Chrome OS devices.

• If a website is blocked, faculty/staff/admin/students can request with an online form to unblock the website. This will be considered on an individual basis.

• OpenDNS is a company and service which extends the Domain Name System (DNS) by adding features such as phishing protection and optional content filtering to traditional recursive DNS services.

• GoGuardian software helps schools easily manage Chromebooks, teach more efficiently, and protect students online.

• Some elements from this policy are inspired by the article “Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later”, by the American Library Association (ALA), June 2014