Exclusive:School iPad pornography alert issued to parents of 35,000 Scottish children

School pupils in Edinburgh have been able to access pornographic images and other explicit content on iPads issued by the city council, it has been claimed.

A video posted on YouTube this week appears to show how easy it was to bypass filters on devices issued to more than 35,000 youngsters across the Scottish capital.

In response, the local authority has limited access to one search engine, and suspended pupils’ access to Wikipedia, as it carries out “a further comprehensive review”.

The issue has emerged just weeks after primary school pupils in Edinburgh were found to have access to pornography and videos of executions at public libraries due to a computer fault.

More than 500 people have viewed a video uploaded four days ago on YouTube under the title of “The Filters Don't Work”.

Image of the video uploaded on YouTube | NW

It shows a test apparently carried out after “numerous reports of children accessing disturbing images on school issued iPads in Edinburgh”.

The demonstration is said to have been carried out on a device issued to a 10-year-old, and involves entering a misspelt explicit term. The search engine returns results for the correct term, with images able to be viewed by simply switching “safe search” off.

It is claimed that “unlimited” porn could be accessed on the iPad, as well as images of strangulation, drowning and executions.

The video states: “It’s been several days since we performed these searches (and) still no alert has been issued to the parents of the child. So no-one would ever know.”

Tests were also carried out, which claimed the filters were successfully blocking adult content.

Some city schools are believed to have contacted parents over the issue, saying they have been made aware of “particular content which could be accessed on Empowered Learning iPads”.

One school wrote to parents: “We have taken immediate steps to ensure that this content cannot be accessed and will be conducting further investigations into this matter. An urgent review of the solution will take place to ensure that this is resolved. We are continually monitoring the situation to ensure the on-line safety of our children and young people. We will take additional steps as deemed appropriate.”

A parent told The Scotsman: “There are numerous parents whose children have reported seeing things, and I understand these have been raised with schools.

“Parents are repeatedly told, ‘testing has provided no cause for concern’ and the council's IT suppliers’ assertions of safety go completely unchallenged.”

They added: “As the monitoring system appears not to work either, there is actually no way of knowing how many children have been exposed to harmful content, or who may have become addicted since the scheme started. The level of harm that has been caused by this is completely unknown.”

Last year, the city council celebrated a milestone after sending iPads to 35,613 pupils from P6 in primary to S6 in secondary, and 4,616 learning staff for use on a one-to-one basis.

For those in early years education, and from P1 to P5, a total of 3,962 iPads were issued to be shared on a ratio of one per five children.

Part of the Edinburgh Learns for Life initiative, the roll-out followed a £17.5 million investment by the city council and was phased over 18 months.

Councillor Joan Griffiths, education, children and families convener, told The Scotsman: “Our learners have access to an Empowered Learning iPad and these devices have a filtering agent applied that is able to filter both within the school and beyond.

“This means that students have filtered internet access whether using the iPad within the school environment, at home, or on a visit to another venue.

“Our filtering restrictions make use of Safe Search as a function, however we were made aware that some search engines were permitting Safe Search to be turned on and off. To ensure the safety of our learners, we have reduced and limited access to just one search engine, allowing for greater control and enhanced safety.

“To date, Wikipedia has been well utilised as an educational resource. However, the site does offer a wide range of topics, some which may not be appropriate for all age groups. We have suspended access to Wikipedia at present while we undertake a further comprehensive review.”

In October this year, the BBC reported that filters designed to block inappropriate websites were not activated on PCs accessed using child library cards in Edinburgh.

The City of Edinburgh Council believed the issue was resolved, until it was discovered that the revised safety measures could also be easily bypassed.

All public computers in the city’s libraries were taken offline again until the issue could be rectified with the council's IT partner, the Canadian firm CGI.

The BBC said school-issued iPads were also taken away from pupils at one school for testing to find out if they were also susceptible to the fault.

It was discovered that websites including Wikipedia, which was not blocked by the filter, may have included inappropriate images and graphics seen by children.

In an email, the council said the devices had since been returned to pupils after “no evidence of inappropriate material” was found.

David Wright, CEO of online safety charity SWGfL and a director for the UK Safer Internet Centre, which publishes definitions for appropriate filtering and monitoring to help schools, colleges, and providers understand what is considered appropriate, particularly in England and Wales.

He said: "Filters will not and do not guarantee you won't encounter content that you are trying to block, it merely minimises the likelihood of that.

"It is very much like an art rather than a science, and the same goes wherever you provide internet access, whether it is at home or in schools, or any public space."

Asked if such devices should be issued to school children if filters can not be relied upon to block content, he said: "I would extend that conversation not just to schools but to families and parents as well.

"One of the things that we are very concerned about is specifically to do with mobile devices like iPads and tablets essentially.

"The way filtering and safeguarding systems work, and the direction of travel Apple and Google and others are taking, is about much more privacy. We support improved privacy, but it is consequently harder for filtering and safeguarding systems to work, because inherently devices are more private."