Online safety for Australian schools. Run by a cyber security team.
DNS Angel protects every school computer from harmful content and cyber threats, keeps lessons open when a teacher needs a blocked site, and gives leaders the record child safe standards ask for. Protection without surveillance, for the whole school.
Built, set up and monitored by IronSights, who protect schools and colleges. Hosted in Australia.
One approach to online safety, for the whole school
Online safety isn't only an IT setting. DNS Angel gives students, teachers, wellbeing staff, leaders and your IT team each the part they need, under one set of rules your school decides.
Students
Protected from harmful content and cyber threats on every school computer, including school laptops at home.
What's blockedTeachers
Lessons keep moving. When a lesson needs a blocked site, the teacher allows it for that lesson, within the school's limits.
For teachersWellbeing and pastoral staff
Online safety that sits inside your pastoral care. No one watches students' screens or scores their wellbeing.
For wellbeing leadersSchool leaders
Limits you set once, a switch for the day something isn't right, and a record that shows how your online environment is kept safe.
For school leadersIT teams
Fewer unblock tickets, and a filter that IronSights sets up with you, checks every 15 minutes and looks after.
For IT teams
Protection that goes beyond a content filter
DNS Angel comes from a cyber security team, so it treats a school's internet as a security problem as well as a content one.
Everything the DNS Agent does- Harmful content
- More than 200 categories, including adult content, gambling, violence, self-harm, cyberbullying and hate speech.
- Cyber threats
- Known malware, phishing and botnet sites are blocked using continuously updated threat intelligence, and brand-new domains can be blocked too.
- Ways around the filter
- Encrypted DNS in Chrome, Edge and Firefox still goes through the filter, known proxy and VPN services can be blocked, and private browsing can be switched off.
- AI tools
- AI chat sites can be blocked for students and allowed for staff, or allowed for one lesson when a teacher needs them.
- Off campus
- School laptops stay filtered at home and on public Wi-Fi, and the school network and guest Wi-Fi can be filtered too.
Protected, not shut out.
Young people learn, connect and look for help online. Schools need limits that hold, and room for lessons to use the real internet.
In eSafety's 2026 study, 80% of children aged 10 to 17 said being online helped their interests, hobbies or creativity.
- A teacher decides
- The adult who knows the lesson and the class opens what it needs.
- It ends by itself
- One site, one room or class, one lesson. Then the normal filter is back.
- Limits that hold
- Always blocked and your Never allow list apply to every teacher, every time.
- No one watches screens
- DNS Angel never views screens, reads messages or scores wellbeing.
A filter is one layer of care. Teaching, relationships and families do the rest.For wellbeing and pastoral leaders
A school day with DNS Angel
One example day, start to finish. Teachers open what a lesson needs, the school's limits hold, and every allow ends by itself, on the record.
No access is live. The normal filter is on.
Choose a site, how long, and a room or class, then press Allow.
Activity
- Mr Patel allowed kahoot.it in 9C Science for 30 minEnded on time at 10:32
- Ms Kelly allowed canva.com in Library for 45 minEnded on time at 10:35
- Ms Nguyen allowed youtube.com in Lab 12 for 45 minEnded on time at 9:45
9:00. A lesson needs YouTube. The teacher allows it.
The teacher doesn't log a ticket or wait for IT. From a phone or laptop, they pick the site, how long and where, signed in with their school Microsoft or Google account.
Allow
Pick the site, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, and the room or class.
Starting
Usually live within 5 minutes. The app shows Starting until then.
Live until 9:45
The teacher sees a countdown and can end it early if the lesson finishes sooner.
Ending
At 9:45 it switches off by itself, and the normal filter is back within about 5 minutes. Then it moves into the teacher's History.
Lesson sets save the sites a unit needs, so a teacher can allow them together in one go.
10:05. Three computers move to the Library. They pick up the Library's access.
Each school chooses whether access follows the room or the class. When your IT team moves a computer to the Library, it picks up the Library's access, usually within 1 to 2 minutes.
| Question | Room | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Access follows | The computers | The students |
| Whoever signs in | Gets the room's access | Gets their class's access |
| Suits | Labs, libraries, laptop trolleys | Students who sign in with their own account on any school computer |
Your IT team doesn't need new tools: we prepare the Group Policy, Intune or device management script that places each computer in its room.
11:20. A teacher tries a site the school never allows.
Teachers get a key, not the master key. Before access starts, DNS Angel checks the site against two lists and your Teacher limits. If the answer is no, the teacher sees which site and why.
IronSights keeps an Always blocked list that no school can allow: adult content, gambling, malware, phishing, self-harm and similar. Your school adds its own Never allow list on top, and Teacher limits set which sites teachers may allow and for how long. Access sits on top of the normal filter for a set time and never changes it. When it ends, every block is back as it was.
- Teacher
Allowed for a lesson
youtube.com in Lab 12, live until 11:45, then it ends.
- Your school
Teacher limits
Which sites teachers may allow, and the longest time for each.
- Your school
Never allow
Your school's own list, such as tiktok.com. Checked when a teacher saves a lesson set and again when they allow a site.
- IronSights
Always blocked
Adult content, gambling, malware, phishing, self-harm and similar. No school can allow these.
2:40. Something isn't right. One switch ends all access.
A school administrator can end all access at once and block new access until they lift the stop. They type stop to confirm, so it doesn't happen by accident.
- Every room and class returns to the normal filter, usually within 5 minutes.
- Teachers can't allow anything new until a school administrator lifts the stop.
- It's recorded with who stopped it, when, and when it was lifted.
3:05. All access has ended, and it's on the record.
The same day, at home time. School administrators can see who allowed what, for which room or class, for how long, and how it ended, including the one that was stopped. Export it as a spreadsheet whenever leaders need to show their working.
All access has ended
The normal filter is on in every room and class.
Activity · today
- Ms Fraser stopped all accessLifted 2:55
- Mr Patel allowed chatgpt.com in 9C Science for 45 minEnded by Stop all access at 2:40
- Ms Kelly allowed canva.com in Library for 30 minEnded early at 1:52
- Mr Patel allowed blooket.com in 9C Science for 30 minEnded on time at 12:22
- Ms Nguyen allowed youtube.com in Lab 12 for 45 minEnded on time at 11:45
- Mr Patel allowed kahoot.it in 9C Science for 30 minEnded on time at 10:32
- Ms Kelly allowed canva.com in Library for 45 minEnded on time at 10:35
- Ms Nguyen allowed youtube.com in Lab 12 for 45 minEnded on time at 9:45
After hours. IronSights keeps watch.
DNS Angel is set up and run for you by IronSights, an Australian cyber security team that protects schools and colleges. Your IT team gets a small admin area, and we do the running.
Checked every 15 minutes
We check each school's filter rules against what they should be. Changed settings are put back, and anything else comes to us to fix.
If access can't end, we hear about it
If access ever fails to end, IronSights is alerted, and the record shows what happened.
An Australian team behind it
Questions go to the team that set your school up.
We connect sign-in
Staff use their school Microsoft or Google account. No new passwords.
We bring in your classes and rooms
From an Active Directory export, and we set up rooms with you.
Your IT team installs the DNS Agent
In the background, through Group Policy, Intune or your device management tool, with scripts we prepare.
Teachers start allowing
Once your normal filter and Never allow list are agreed with your school.
Security and privacy, built in from the start
IronSights protects schools and colleges for a living. DNS Angel lets teachers allow sites through your school's web filter, so we built it the way we'd want any school's tools built.
How we look after school data- Hosted in Sydney
- The DNS Angel app and its records live in Australia.
- Enterprise sign-in, standard
- Staff sign in with the school's Microsoft or Google accounts, by invitation. It's included for every school, with no new passwords.
- Each school kept apart
- The database itself keeps each school's data apart.
- Designed to WCAG 2.2 AA
- Large controls, clear words, and nothing that relies on colour alone.
Questions schools ask
Short answers to what IT teams, leaders and teachers ask first.
Something else? Ask us directly.
What is DNS Angel?
DNS Angel is online safety and web filtering for Australian schools. A DNS Agent protects every school Windows computer from harmful content and cyber threats, teachers can allow a blocked site for a lesson within the school's limits, and leaders get a record of what was opened. IronSights, an Australian cyber security team, sets it up and looks after it.
What does DNS Angel protect students from?
Harmful content in more than 200 categories, including adult content, gambling, violence, self-harm and hate speech, plus cyber threats such as malware, phishing and botnet sites. Known proxy and VPN services can be blocked, and school laptops stay filtered at home and on public Wi-Fi.
Can teachers allow any site they like?
No. Teachers can't allow anything on IronSights' Always blocked list or your school's Never allow list, and your Teacher limits decide which sites they may allow and for how long. Access sits on top of the normal filter for a set time. It never changes the filter itself, and nothing on the Always blocked or Never allow lists can be allowed.
What does DNS Angel record about students?
DNS Angel records what staff do: who allowed which site, where, for how long, and how it ended. It doesn't show teachers students' screens and isn't a classroom monitoring tool. The DNS Agent logs blocked sites with the user, computer and time so IT can troubleshoot.
How quickly does a teacher's change take effect?
Usually within 5 minutes, and the teacher sees it as Starting until it's live. When the time is up, access ends by itself and the normal filter is back within about 5 minutes.
Which devices does it work on?
School Windows computers, in Chrome, Edge and Firefox. The school network, including guest Wi-Fi, can also be filtered at the DNS level. If your school runs Macs, talk to us. Chromebooks and iPads aren't supported.
Who sets it up?
IronSights does, with your IT team: sign-in with your Microsoft or Google accounts, your classes and rooms, your normal filter, and the scripts that install the DNS Agent through Group Policy, Intune or your device management tool. Then we monitor it.
Can government schools use DNS Angel?
Usually not. Most government schools get their filtering from their education department, and some departments don't allow schools to run their own. DNS Angel is built for independent and Catholic schools that choose their own filtering.
How is it priced?
DNS Angel is priced per computer. We'll take you through it after the demo, once we understand your school.
See what DNS Angel would look after at your school.
A walkthrough with the IronSights team: what's protected, how teachers keep lessons moving, what leaders can show, and how we set it up and look after it. Planning for Term 1, 2027? Now is a good time to look.