PUPILS as young as 11 have been openly chatting on explicit adult website chat rooms during IT lessons at St Matthew's Primary School in Blackmoor. The shocking revelations, which have infuriated and concerned parents as to the safety of the school's IT security and teaching standards, only came to light, after a parent discovered his childs explicit actitivities on their home computer. IT teachers at the school failed to challenge three girls in year six when they logged on to the 'adult' chat rooms during supervised lessons, placing them at risk to potential paedophile rings. An outraged parent of a pupil at the school, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "It first came to light when one of the girls' father typed his daughters name into a search engine. "It led him to an internet chat room where his daughter was using her name, but giving her age as 19. Bear in mind that these girls are only 11 years old. "In the chat room, his daughter was involved in sexual conversations with other "adults" which were extremely graphic, and involved talk of 'oral' sexual activities, among other things." The parent was left completely shocked by his discovery. But the truth of the incident became worse when further searches were carried out. The parent added: "Upon searching, it was found that the conversations were traced back to the school's computer and not the computer at home. "When he confronted his daughter, she explained that she had been accessing this internet chat room during the computer lessons at the school." The concerned parent continued: "I am absolutely astonished that this could happen at a junior school – firstly, how on earth did they access such a site and secondly, how was it not noticed during the lesson? Was there no supervision? What about filters to stop the children being able to access certain sites?" Headteacher at the school, Mary Hillman, denied any failure by teaching staff to detect the incident. She said: "We encourage children to become competent at using the internet. The site did not look overtly like a chat room, and was therefore easily overlooked. "As soon as we were alerted to the matter, it was very quickly stopped. "We can check the history of the computers, and that is something that we have done in the past. "We are taking advice about the matter of security." Hampshire Police, who have dedicated unit to deal with online criminal offences, confirmed they had no record of the incident. Mrs Hillman, was unable to confirm if any members of staff had been discaplined in rleation to the matter. Mrs Hillman added: "We must all be on our toes, including parents, to spot this sort of incident. "Especially when considering that some of the knowledge of the internet, such as checking or creating hotmail (email) accounts, is not taught by the school and therefore this knowledge has come from somewhere outside of the school. "We all need to be vigilant, and if there are any problems we need to communicate. "If there is a problem at school we will contact the parents, and if there is a problem at home, parents should contact us. "This technology is very new and is always changing, so it is vitally important that we work together to avoid any pitfalls and not put blame on people. "I can see that this will be an ongoing issue, which is of nationwide importance. "However, this particular incident has been dealt with by the school; the parents are fully aware and the pupils have been dealt with." When approached about the subject as they waiting for their children outside the school this week, most parents declined to comment on the subject. Nicola Holmes, whose son attends the school's second year, called for increased pupil supervision, saying: "I am not totally surprised, I have heard things of a similar nature at other schools. "But the pupils should be fully supervised, throughout the whole session on the computers. "One way they could stop this is to move the computer, so eevery monitor can be seen. "Kids are up on how to access these type of websites, so the need for proper supervision, at all times, is uppermost." A Hampshire County Council spokesman, also denied that any fault lay with the school or its teachers, prefering to blame the websites creators for endangering the children and bringing them into contact with 'adults' He said: "This was not a case of human error, or a failure of our filter systems. "Our filter systems are continually updated, but unfortunately this was a very sophisticated website that managed to partially bypass the filter. The website did not entirely breach the filters – as there were no pictures or images available to the children. "Using the internet and email are key learning skills and as part of their learning all pupils are made aware of the risks of the internet and the need to use it responsibly. "Any misuse of equipment is taken very seriously. Pupils are advised about personal safety issues and robust filter systems are in place on school computers to ensure that unsuitable material cannot be accessed. "However, this incident highlights the difficulties surrounding the use of the internet by children. Although it is an essential learning tool, containing a wealth of valuable information, there are unscrupulous individuals that are always seeking out security loopholes. "Hampshire County Council, like any responsible organisation, continues to look for ways to reduce the chances of people inadvertently accessing inappropriate material while using our IT systems. "When alerted to a site that has managed to bypass our filters we take immediate action and in this case the site has now been blocked." For more information on keeping children safe while online visit http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk">www.thinkuknow.co.uk.
