Introducing Lightspeed Alert's New Email Quarantine Feature

August 13, 2024

Ensuring the safety and security of students in a digital environment is a top priority for educational institutions. To address the growing concerns around inappropriate email communications, Lightspeed Systems has introduced Email Quarantine functionality as part of the Lightspeed Alert platform. Available now in early access, this new feature offers a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing email communications within schools and districts.

Benefits of Email Quarantine

According to The Social Institute’s 2024 Social Student Report, student email use begins as early as third grade and increases through high school. While 31% of 3rd-5th graders report using email weekly, that number jumps to 59% for middle schoolers and 78% for high schoolers—making email the number one app used by students in grades 9-12.

With the sheer volume of emails sent by students on a weekly basis, email quarantine is a necessary proactive measure that enhances the safety and security of the school community’s digital communication by preventing harmful emails from reaching students. By stopping emails harmful messages before they’re seen, district leaders prevent unnecessary exposure to concerning content, such as explicit images and cyberbullying.

This feature is crucial for:

Student Safety and Mental Health: Automatically quarantining emails prevents the spread of concerning content, promoting a safer school environment.
District Reputation: Email spoofs and email-driven deepfake content put district credibility at risk. Email quarantine stops such communications before they spread.

Feature Overview

Email Quarantine scans all student-associated emails, analyzing and scoring content for risk, and quarantining emails that contain concerning material, such as explicit text or images. This feature leverages advanced AI technology and human review to ensure accuracy and context.

Key aspects of Email Quarantine include:

AI Scanning and Human Review: Automatically evaluates email content for inappropriate, concerning, or harmful material.
Integrated Email Activity Log: Offers detailed visibility into quarantined emails without exposing their content, aiding IT administrators in troubleshooting.
Flexible Management: District staff have the control to review, release, or continue quarantining emails, ensuring a tailored approach to digital safety.

How Does It Work? Lightspeed Alert AI models scan all emails involving a student (to, from, cc, or bcc). If concerning content related to bullying, explicit material, violence, drugs, or weapons is detected, the email is quarantined (before it is ever delivered), and an alert is generated. Email quarantine uses the same monitoring preferences set for alerts, including categories, levels of concern, schedules, and languages, ensuring the feature is tailored to district preferences.

Student safety is our top concern and we know that when it comes to students at risk of self-harm, every second matters! To ensure students are able to get the help they need regarding their mental health without delay, emails associated with self-harm are not quarantined but still trigger alerts.

Quarantined emails are sent to Lightspeed’s expert Human Review team for review. Our Human Review team will follow the same processes they use with other alerts, immediately contacting the district if an imminent concern is spotted. District staff are also able to review all quarantined emails and decide whether to release them or keep them in quarantine. Explicit images are masked for safety during review. However, if an email does include suspected explicit images, staff can choose to report these to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

We know schools are short on time and resources and our Human Review team acts as an extension of the district. To further streamline processes, districts can enable the ability for Human Review to close no-risk cases. With regular alerts, this closes the case and reduces administrator burden. With email quarantine, this closes the case and releases the email.

After reviewing the alert details and assessing the content, staff can easily decide whether to release an email from quarantine or hold it based on the review. This flexible approach ensures that inappropriate or harmful content does not reach students while maintaining a streamlined process for district staff.