About

Online Listener is a confidential software service to facilitate communication between students and the members of pastoral care services within schools. The software is a web service and is centrally maintained by Online Listener.

The software allows students to anonymously contact members of the peer support group, or pastoral care team within the school using an intuitive web interface.

Secure

Owing to its deployment as a centrally maintained web service, Online Listener can provide a secure solution to all schools using the service, standards impossible to achieve in a home made solution. This protection is paramount due to the nature of the sensitive data being stored.

All sensitive data within our databases is secured using AES-256 encryption. Passwords are encrypted using a one way cryptographic hash function (MD5).

Online Listener is hosted from a private server environment, using Virtual Private Server software. The software ensures isolation for sites and is deployed from equipment in secure data centres. Access to the servers hosting Online Listener is tightly controlled through a system of airlocks and secured areas within the data centres.

Customisable

Online Listener is fully customisable by each school, and each will be provided with a stand alone site with custom text, theme and web address. Each school has access to individually maintain their own site, and customise the functionality of the software.

History

Online Listener was launched in May 2004 as a single site, StudentListeners.com, to fulfil the need for a confidential communications system between school students and the trained peer support group within a school. The site was originally designed for Cranbrook School, and allowed students to send messages to Cranbrook School's "Student Listeners", who were a group of about 50 year 12 and 13 students.

Online Listener has since continually evolved to form a fully customisable software service suitable for schools across the country.