Pupils do not have access to porn, councillors reassured

Primary school pupils in the capital had access to pornography and videos of executions at public libraries due to a computer fault, it has emerged.

Filters designed to block inappropriate websites were not activated on PCs accessed using child library cards.

City of Edinburgh Council believed the issue was resolved early in October – 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 by the council’s IT partner, the Canadian firm CGI.

At a recent meeting of Scottish Borders Council reassurance was sought from Tweeddale East SNP representative Councillor Marshall Douglas that the filters installed in public libraries and schools within the Borders worked effectively and that inappropriate websites were not accessible within council or Live Borders facilities.

He said: “This is a concern to the wider Borders public, as the IT systems employed by the council are also supplied by CGI.

“The reports include reference to children having viewed sexually explicit material as well as videos of executions.”

Councillor Leagh Douglas, SBC executive member for Finance, IT and Corporate Performance, was able to give that assurance.

She said: “Following the issues reported in Edinburgh CGI has confirmed that the web content filtering which is applied to Scottish Borders Council networks has been checked and it has been confirmed that it is working as expected, blocking inappropriate content.

“It is important to note that cyber security has an ever current threat changing landscape, which means that we all must remain vigilant to ensure that we stay as protected as we can.”