Amplified IT is vendor independent, which means every three months we review the services available to K-12 schools and select the ones we feel are most suitable for our customers. Part of that service vetting process is knowing what attributes and features will be most commonly needed by educational institutions and providing feature guidance. As a school or district, having a set of specific criteria to compare/contrast web filtering options is helpful during the trial and research process.
Decide which features are most important to you and ensure that the web filter you choose best suits your environment. If you are unsure, Catherine Weers can assist with guidance and direction based on your needs.
Compliance
- Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Compliant
- Off-site filtering of Google Chrome OS-based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Android-based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Microsoft Windows-based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Apple OS X based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Apple iOS-based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Google Chrome OS-based devices. State method used.
- Off-site filtering of Amazon Kindle based devices. State method used.
- Provides logs of both onsite and offsite web activity identified by username.
- Provides logs both onsite and offsite web activity identified by MAC address.
- Provides logs of both onsite and offsite web activity identified by IP address.
- Provide the ability to filter users based on subnet, group membership, and individually.
Authentication
- The ability to Authenticate and apply filtering policies based on Google group or OU membership.
- The ability to Authenticate and apply filtering policies based on Active Directory group membership.
- The ability to apply filtering to select equipment based on a hardware identifier, such as MAC address.
Administration
- The management interface allows for multiple concurrent users.
- The solution allows the configuration settings, including custom override lists, to be backed up both manually and on a scheduled basis.
- Allow delegated administration of content filter groups to a non-sysadmin level account by organizational unit/group.
- Allow the ability for teachers to whitelist content for only the student filtering groups scoped to their district, building, or classroom.
- Allow users to request URL exceptions.
- Allow full bypass of the content filter based on IP address.
- Allow full bypass of the content filter based on subnet range.
- Allow full bypass of the content filter based on the content filter group.
Inspection
- Allow the administrator to look up a URL to determine which category or categories it belongs to.
- Provide pre-defined lists of URLs in categories that include, but are not limited to subjects such as pornography, drugs, weapons, violence, and criminal activities.
- Provide automatic updates to predefined categories on at least a daily basis
- Provide the ability to set time-based policies for content filter groups.
- Websites can be whitelisted at a global level.
- Websites can be whitelisted at a group or organizational unit level.
- Websites can be whitelisted using wildcards within the URL.
- Websites can be blocked at a global level.
- Websites can be blocked at a group or organizational unit level.
- Websites can be blocked using wildcards within the URL.
- Web applications that require multiple sites to be whitelisted can be grouped into a category.
- Web applications that require blocking of multiple sites can be grouped into a category.
- Provide the ability to block access to specific file extensions.
- Provide the ability to block access to specific domain extension.
- Provide the ability to block searches and site access based on a list of keywords.
- Provide the ability to block searches and site access based on a regular expression.
- Provide the ability to block traffic associated with Tor.
- Provide the ability to block traffic associated with Psiphon.
- Provide the ability to block traffic associated with VPN.
- Provide the ability to block traffic associated with BitTorrent.
- Provide the ability to block traffic based on an HTTP request scan.
- Provide the ability to block traffic to a specific TCP port.
- Provide the ability to block traffic from a specific TCP port.
- Provide the ability to block traffic to a specific UDP port.
- Provide the ability to block traffic from a specific UDP port.
- Provide the ability to force all users to Google Safe Search.
- Provide the ability to force specific content filter groups to Google Safe Search.
- Provide the ability to force all users to Yahoo Safe Search.
- Provide the ability to force specific content filter groups to Yahoo SafeSearch.
- Provide the ability to force all users to Bing Safe Search.
- Provide the ability to force specific content filter groups to Bing Safe Search.
- Provide the ability to force all users to Youtube Moderate Search.
- Provide the ability to force specific content filter groups to Youtube Moderate Search.
- Provide the ability to force all users to Youtube Strict Search.
- Provide the ability to force specific content filter groups to Youtube Strict Search.
- Provide SSL decryption of all internet traffic for a sustained usage of 15 Gbps.
- Provide selective SSL decryption of an internet site based on a defined subnet range.
- Provide selective SSL decryption of an internet site based on the content filter group.
- Provide selective SSL decryption of a category based on a defined subnet range.
- Provide selective SSL decryption of a category based on the content filter group.
- Provide geolocation information for offsite devices.
- Provide the ability to perform bandwidth shaping.
Social Media
- The solution has controls for Spotify.
- The solution has controls for Pinterest.
- The solution has controls for Facebook.
- The solution has controls for Twitter.
- The solution has controls for Linked-in.
- The solution has controls for Google.
- The solution has controls for Youtube.
Google Compatibility
- Provide the ability to monitor bullying/self-harm behavior in the Gmail application.
- Provide the ability to monitor bullying/self-harm behavior in the Drive application.
- Provide the ability to monitor bullying/self-harm behavior in other Google applications
- Provide the ability to monitor documents for keywords.
- Provide the ability to monitor documents for Adult Images.
- Provide the ability to issue student warnings for flagged behavior.
- Provide alerts to a separate user or group for each OU in a multi-tenant domain.
Monitoring
- Ability for Teachers to view student screens
- Ability for Teacher to push links to students
- Ability for Teacher to screenshare
- Ability for Students to alert teacher when they need additional assistance
- Ability for Teachers to filter the web during a class session.
- Ability for Teacher to record student web activity in real time
Transparency
- The solution has a portal where parents can examine their student’s web activity.
- The solution has a portal where teachers can examine their student’s web activity.