Jamf Safe Internet protects everywhere that students learn

Prevention over inspection balances safety and privacy

Designed to help schools protect minors from harmful content on the internet, Jamf Safe Internet allows school admins to keep students safe online with a “prevention over inspection” approach to student and user privacy.

“With technology now firmly embedded in the student experience, there is a growing need for digital safety to eliminate cyberattacks and prevent students from accessing unsafe content. Jamf combines best-in-class network threat prevention and a vast content-filtering database to block unsafe and malicious content so that students can safely learn online from anywhere.”

— Senior Director of Education Strategy Suraj Mohandas, Jamf.

Why schools use content filtering to keep students safe

Some might think that content filtering is fairly straightforward: assemble a list of sites that contain inappropriate or dangerous content and ensure that students have no access to them.

But it’s more than that. Smart filters and continual research can prevent access to self-harm sites, threats, cyberbullying (cyberbullying has been linked to suicide) and more. So it’s not just about preventing inappropriate images, keeping students from distractions, or safe YouTube for schools. it’s about caring for the mental health of students, and for their safety.

So how does such a sophisticated school web filter actually work?

The power behind Jamf Safe Internet

We use our own vetted database to classify domains into categories. We keep this database up-to-date in a few ways:

• Through integrations with partners like the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and UK Counter Terrorism
• By buying new URL lists when adding a new category
• With machine-learning models that automatically classify domains into categories when the confidence level that the site is inappropriate is above a certain threshold
• Through a team of data scientists and analysts responsible for vetting domains that are in question that continually check that already categorized domains are accurate
• Giving admins the ability to block/allow a specific domain in the console or request a reclassification from the Safe Internet Dashboard
• We've also recently added the additional power of on-device content filtering for iPads.

Who can use Jamf Safe Internet?

New to Jamf Safe Internet: Chromebook filtering.

Jamf Safe Internet protects any student using a MacOS, iOS, iPadOS or ChromeOS.

Seamless integration with Jamf device management

To deliver this powerful content filtering capability simply, Jamf Safe Internet integrates seamlessly with Jamf School. Jamf Safe Internet can be deployed to an existing fleet, or built right into the zero-touch deployment workflows school admins know and love. This means your students have a safe and secure learning environment everywhere they learn— from the moment they unbox their devices.

Already a Jamf Pro customer? You can integrate your instance with Jamf Safe Internet as well— through UEM Integration in settings.

Customized content control in one click.

With Jamf Safe Internet, you have the option to dive right in and create the perfect policy payload for you, all within the Jamf Safe Internet Portal.

Although Jamf Safe Internet gives you the ability to customize granular policies, admins can also select easy, pre-defined rules that quickly set your policy to get started.

• Safe Internet configures your policy to block content that is non-compliant with regional child internet safety regulations. This includes Adult, Extreme, Gambling, Illegal, Third-party proxies and Tobacco site categories.
• High Bandwidth blocks content that consumes a large amount of data. This includes audio and video, social media, gaming, and cloud and file storage.
• Unproductive Content blocks social media and gaming to keep your students focused.

If an IT admin does want to fully customize the experience, they can expand each category and see what is blocked by default. For example, if there is a need to allow or block a certain social media domain, it’s easy to do individually, based on your school’s rules. When you are done adjusting your policy, just hit Save and Apply. And this is just one example of the many categories Jamf Safe Internet offers.

It’s worth noting, Jamf Safe Internet’s categories are not just about content filtering. By default malware, phishing attacks and spam are blocked to ensure a high level of device security and student safety.

Customized policies

Each school has different needs and scope. That’s why you can add custom rules to your policy.

Similar to the content categories mentioned above, once these domains are added to the list, you can use the allow/block toggle. So, whether you are getting yourself started and ensuring you cover your bases with the quick pre-defined rules or you are customizing exactly as you need — Jamf Safe Internet’s lightweight, performant domain name system (DNS) technology allows you to create and customize as you see fit.

Setup. Deploy. Filter. Report.

Security professionals know that threat management doesn’t stop with protective tools. You need to understand the effects of your work and enable proactive measures to adjust. And you'll want thorough reporting to keep track of it all.

We believe that privacy is an important right for everybody: especially students and children. Our “privacy over inspection” approach allows schools to help children be safe on the internet without invading their privacy. Reporting on Jamf Safe Internet is clean and effective, offering two levels of details: Site and Category Usage reports for blocked URLs, and a Security Report for malware and malicious threats. Now you can understand your device usage and monitor the effectiveness of what you have put in place.

Jamf Safe Internet allows students to learn fearlessly with safe, private connections everywhere learning happens.