About Hidl
Hidl is a free web-filter check for UK schools, from Ceidwad Limited. Hidl is Welsh for “filter” or “sieve”. It helps your school see whether its filter does what you expect on a real device, and gives your DSL and IT person something to act on.
What the pilot checks
- Sites schools usually block, such as adult, gambling and piracy sites, by asking each site for its small icon.
- Which general AI chatbots this device can reach. That is your school’s choice, so Hidl reports it and asks you to check it.
- Help and teaching sites, such as Childline, which should stay open for everyone.
Hidl never opens these pages and never shows anything from them. Some categories, such as child abuse, terrorism, extremism and self-harm, are never tested at all. Hidl says so on the results page.
One standard for every run
Hidl cannot see who is signed in, so every run is checked against the same pupil-safe standard. Sites in the must-be-blocked categories should not be reachable, the other categories are your school’s choice, and help and learning sites should always be reachable. To compare groups, run Hidl once with each type of account your school uses.
What the pilot cannot see
The pilot runs only in the browser. It can see whether an icon arrived, not how your filter blocked a site. A site that is down can look blocked. HTTPS inspection and other deeper checks need a Hidl test server, which comes after the pilot, so they are not shown yet.
Seven results, counted
Hidl gives each check one of seven results: Held, Leaked, Partial, Over-blocked, Your choice, Not tested or Inconclusive. It counts them. It never adds them up into one mark, and it never names or compares filtering companies.
Read how Hidl handles your data on the privacy page.
Free from Ceidwad Limited.