Following recent revelations regarding the sharing of explicit images of girls from more than 70 Australian schools, a technological solution has been suggested.
Speaking at the Australian Institute of Professinal Intelligence Offices’ (AIPIO) conference yesterday, Founder and Director of Prevent and Protect Pty Ltd, Ms Fi Bendall announced new software designed to protect students against these kind of online threats.
The solution is described as protecting vulnerable users by actively analysing peer-to-peer cyber bullying, radicalisation and extremist grooming, instances of grooming and sexual threats, potential self-harm, deliberate access to inappropriate websites, pornography and more.
Ms Bendall said the launch of the new online software was particularly timely due to the recent news regarding the pornography scandal.
“This is especially timely and causing much interest at AIPIO due to the recent pornography scandal hitting more than 70 schools nationally. Prevent and Protect have agreed to work for free with police, intelligence, federal and state authorities to assist in their intelligence gathering”.
Prevent and Protect was formed in 2016 using software already implemented in 3,500 schools across the UK. It is designed to alert institutions to real-world issues that young people may be experiencing, including domestic violence, neglect, depression and anxiety.
“This is not an internet filtering system, it is an online system that alerts and captures information when a high-grade risk is in play,” Ms Bendall explained.
“We want to work with schools and police to provide an online system that will identify risks and alert the right people at the right time to put in place much needed support to young people being exposed to online threats. The data we capture is from inappropriate material from online and offline activity on social networking sites, chat rooms, peer-to-peer software, interactive games, websites, email, instant messaging systems, word and notepad.”
