London. 19th January, 2004. The results of a new survey out today reveal that despite a 77% increase in unsolicited emails (spam) in 2003*, 41% of teachers in the UK do not believe that their school has implemented effective measures to prevent offensive emails from reaching staff and students’ inboxes.

The survey of 400 teachers, conducted by Schoolzone and MessageLabs, the leading provider of managed email security services to businesses worldwide, also showed that 41% of teachers receive a high proportion of spam, and over 40% did not know what levels of spam are received by students. A quarter of schools surveyed did not have an acceptable email usage policy in place, a key factor in monitoring and controlling the number of offensive emails sent and received.

Philip Collie, managing director at Schoolzone, commented, “The results of the survey show that while many schools are taking measures to prevent the amount of spam that is received in schools, there is a significant percentage of teachers who are not aware of the problem and do not know if there are any specific measures in place to filter out unsolicited emails.”

Mark Sunner, Chief Technology Officer at MessageLabs said, “Schools need to treat email regulation in the same way as any other business. Just as firms have learnt that email needs to be filtered in order to protect their staff from offensive images and their business from lawsuits, schools must take steps to prevent spam from reaching staff and students’ inboxes. The most effective way of doing this is to have all emails filtered at the Internet level and any unsolicited mail stopped, before it reaches the end user. ”

The majority of teachers who took part in the survey felt that a blanket ban on the use of email in schools would be a waste of an educational resource, but allowing students to access unfiltered emails is irresponsible. Many teachers also felt that if email were made available at specific times during the day, it would be easier to monitor without having to disrupt lessons.

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