FOUR York schoolboys have been barred from surfing the Internet at school after they logged onto a porn site during a science lesson.

Hugh Porter, head teacher at Joseph Rowntree School in New Earswick said today that all pupils had been warned that action would be taken if the rules were broken.

But one of the boy's mothers said the school system should have a 'net nanny' to filter out such sites.

Nicky Cottingham, of Hawthorn Avenue, Haxby, said her 12-year-old son and three other boys had looked at the porn site when they were supposed to be using a computer as part of a science lesson. Mr Porter had banned all of them from using the Internet until January 2002.

But she said she believed there should be a filter on the system.

"I didn't know my child could get on to something like that. I thought there was a block on it.

"I know when I was 11 or 12 and you're told not to do something you're intrigued aren't you?

"It's quite frightening that they can get quite easy access to this sort of material. I don't think my son is mature enough when there's a group of boys egging each other on."

Mr Porter said the school's policy was that students under the age of 16 were not allowed access to the Internet on school computers unless they were with a teacher or under the supervision of a sixth former in after-school activities.

They had been told that anyone accessing "inappropriate sites" would be banned from using the Internet and pupils and parents had signed letters which were sent home setting out this policy.

He said the school used to have a filter on the system in the past, but it had slowed down access to the Internet drastically and had not been effective in removing access to all such sites. So the school had removed the filter and introduced the Internet policy.

"Other schools had concerns as well. We discussed it with the LEA and the general advice was that individual schools had the choice. It's been an issue all schools have had to confront."

He added that there was a possibility filters might be reintroduced because the school was hoping to upgrade its system with "broadband" connections which would speed up access.

Updated: 08:50 Thursday, October 04, 2001