Helping students to stay safe online at home

A message from N4L - applying a safety filter at home.

As you know, children's online safety is important. At school, Network for Learning (N4L) helps keep our students safe from the bad side of the internet. During lockdown, the students' place of learning shifts to their home. So N4L has worked out a way to help parents keep their children safely connected at home.  This is not required but is an option for parents if they want to use it.

FREE N4L safety filter for all students

We've set up a safety filter that parents can set up on their child's learning devices from home. Just go to switchonsafety.co.nz to find clear instructions on how to do this.

The free N4L safety filter (by global cyber-security leader, Akamai) blocks websites containing known cyber threats like phishing scams, malicious content and viruses, while also protecting children from content deemed the worst of the web (like adult sites).

It is an extension of one of the many safety and security services we have in place at schools and is a valuable layer of protection to help keep children safe online. Please remember that technology is not a silver bullet and the filter should be used in combination with Netsafe's online parent safety toolkit.

How does it work?
Once a child's device is set up, all internet search requests will go through the safety filter which checks if the website they are trying to visit is safe before allowing access. If it's a website that's known to be unsafe, then it will be blocked. The safety filter is applied to the child's device, so parents' devices are not affected.

Any questions?
We have answered key questions at switchonsafety.co.nz/faqs alternatively please send any questions to help@n4l.co.nz.

Ngā mihi,
The Ministry of Education, N4L and Netsafe
Your Online Safety Team