East Lothian pupils blocked from emails over ‘inappropriate content’ after message went viral within minutes
Thousands of school children were blocked from accessing their emails on Thursday after ‘inappropriate content’ linked to a message sent from a pupil’s account went viral within minutes.
Education bosses in East Lothian were alerted to the rogue email within eight minutes and alerted Google who shut down access to all students’ Gmail accounts over the following 10 minutes across the school network.
It is understood the original email snowballed as others added ‘adult content’ in a string of messages and images, some of which were considered sexually explicit.
The council said that the email was sent out at 11.24am, IT alerted by 11.32am and Gmail access blocked by 11.40am.
While the email is believed to have been sent to all 16,000 pupil accounts, the quick shutdown means the majority are unlikely to have seen it and no-one will be allowed back into the school accounts until it has been deleted.
A message was sent to parents and carers this afternoon letting them know of the breach, which the council stressed originated within school and is not linked to any third party breach.
The message said: “We are aware of a large scale email chain that has been created by and shared to pupils. The chain has shared messages and media that are inappropriate and in violation of our policies for acceptable use.
“Gmail accounts have been immediately suspended so that the messages are no longer accessible and all emails are in the process of being recalled. We are also reviewing our processes to ensure incidents of this nature do not occur again.
“Staff teams are available in school to support any children and young people who have received the emails and are affected by they. We would also encourage parents to discuss with their children what they choose to view online and share.
“This has been a misuse of the system by pupils and not the result of third party or external action.”