CIPA and Content Filtering in Legal Contexts

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is often overlooked in the legal profession; however, attorneys representing school districts, colleges, and other educational institutions must ensure that their clients have the necessary protections. CIPA protects children from inappropriate material such as porn or adult material, and educational institutions are required to protect minors from unfettered internet access. Content filtering is the most effective solution for schools and educational institutions that must comply with CIPA and monitor children’s online activity. 

TitanHQ content filtering blocks websites at the DNS level, meaning content is blocked as soon as kids enter a domain into their browsers. Because it’s DNS-based, content filtering software with TitanHQ automatically updates to block the latest malicious and inappropriate websites. Bad actors create new malicious sites every day, but TitanHQ uses collaborative threat intelligence to add these new sites to content filtering blocks. 

Blocking inappropriate sites protects children from the dangers of the internet, but it’s imperative that educational institutions follow CIPA regulations to avoid violations. Legal ramifications from unfettered internet access can be mitigated through content filtering, and TitanHQ offers the right solution to protect children and ensure your organization's compliance with government regulations. 

Web Content Filtering and CIPA 

Schools can’t rely on teachers to watch students every time they are at a computer, but web content filters will block inappropriate sites on every browser and computer across campus. Solutions like WebTitan give administrators control over web browsing. Schools and other educational institutions can control browsing using permissions, site categories, URLs, and grouping network users to block minors. 

For example, suppose a K-12 school needs to block all students from browsing gambling websites. Attorneys within the organization might need access to these sites for research or discovery purposes. Administrators can group all students into a specific minor’s group while placing all attorneys in their own elevated privileges group. The group with minors in it is assigned a few permissions and only allows for browsing educational sites. Administrators can go a step further and only allow minors to browse internal network sites specifically installed for teaching students. 

Using groups and web content filters, administrators have much better control over browsing habits. The filters also provide CIPA compliance to avoid hefty fines and possible federal funding limitations. Not only is web content filtering CIPA compliant, but it also protects children from the numerous dangerous sites on the internet. Minors could unknowingly download malicious content or run malware on the local network. Using content filters blocks malware from being downloaded and executed. 

Administrators place strict controls on students, but other staff can be given elevated permissions. Attorneys in a less strict permission group can be given access to some sites that they need for research and productivity. It should be noted that administrators should never grant full, unfettered access to the internet without controls in place. Even elevated privileges should be limited. For example, unless an attorney must research a situation involving adult sites, the group should still be restricted from accessing these sites. By default, administrators can block these sites but whitelist access when a situation arises that requires a specific user to access them for research purposes. 

Monitoring and Educating Minors’ Online Activity 

In addition to protecting students and minors from browsing inappropriate sites, WebTitan provides administrators with the logging and monitoring tools required by CIPA. CIPA requires organizations to monitor minors’ activity, including evidence of cyberbullying, inappropriate habits, and interaction with social media. Should a minor experience any of these activities while on your network, administrators can investigate what happened and find logs of the sites the minor visited. Attorneys can also use the audit trail for any litigation. 

WebTitan ensures your educational institution and federally funded internet access are CIPA compliant, removing the administrative overhead from busy administrators who need to monitor user activity. It’s a solution with convenient deployment. Administrators can plug in WebTitan in the cloud and have content filters up and running within minutes. 

Find out more about how WebTitan can help you stay CIPA compliant.