Primary school children in Edinburgh have been stumbling across disturbing, explicit images on school-issued iPads.
The filters were tested independently. They don’t work. And this isn’t a one-off failure.
These devices form part of a multi-million-pound digital learning contract, managed by a private contractor, filtered by a third-party system, and accredited through a process that checks just one blocked URL per category. Yet explicit Wikipedia images and videos remained accessible months after the council removed library access for the exact same issue.
Parents raised concerns. Healthcare professionals raised concerns. Teachers raised concerns. Still, the filters continued to fail.
🔸 School-issued 1:1 devices with no meaningful real-world safety
🔸 Filters that miss explicit image suggestions & video previews
🔸 A council that admits it has no risk assessment for digital device use
🔸 No investigation into how many children accessed harmful material because analysing incidents would “cost too much”
Meanwhile national bodies warn of rising harms: • The Children’s Commissioner has highlighted the impact of exposure to indecent images • Online grooming crimes have surged • “Child-safe” filtering standards are still influenced by collaborations between tech companies and the adult content industry
This is the reality: The companies that build the internet and the companies that profit from adult content are helping define what “safe” looks like for children.
Parents expect protection. Children deserve protection. Neither is being delivered.
In November 2025 Harry Amies, software engineer, parent and campaigner with Unplug.Scot, brought this evidence directly into Parliament, at our SafeScreens event hosted by Laura Trott and Sophie Winkleman. His message was clear: if Scotland’s systems failed catastrophically, every nation relying on the same devices, filters, and accreditation processes must assume that children face similar risks until independently proven otherwise.
We cannot look away. SafeScreens will continue pushing for statutory reform, independent oversight and real-world safety testing.
Our children are owed more than broken filters.
