School laptop, youtube, dd11

[Karen333]

Hi,

DD has been given a school laptop with built in controls but I am concerned about YouTube.
At home on my iPad I have restrictions set and if she watches I am with her, then came the laptop!
I have the ISP parental control settings on at home and her laptop seems to block context that is 18+ such as film trailers but there’s a hell of a lot of stuff on there I don’t want her to see.
At school they are allowed on YouTube at lunchtime and she has been on a few times when I thought she was doing homework.
I know I need to police her internet usage at home but I can’t do that when she is at school.
I asked the IT guy at the school and he said it was all locked down and she couldn’t see anything inappropriate, but surely if she searches on a browser she can find all sorts through there, you don’t need an account to watch youtube.

Anyone else got similar problems? I could ask the school to install parental control software which will block it but no one else’s parents seem bothered at all, not sure if that’s just ignorance because they believe what the school said.
Am I being over protective??

Thanks.

I think if he says it’s locked down, and you find she’s accessed something she shouldn’t, he’s not going to have a job for long. I’d be tempted to believe him.

in all fairness I think school computers should block any stuff that's not education related. (Like they do in workplaces)

I cant believe they are letting the kids watch you tube at school?! why aren't they going out to play?

Yanbu our school is proposing to have chromebook for all and I have the same worries. I monitor my 12 year old's screen time and what she watches on YouTube and I worry that the school laptop will be outside this. What is inappropriate for an 11 year old is subjective. With restricted setting on she won't be watching porn but there is still plenty of stuff she can be watching that you don't want her to. I have found stuff glamourising anorexia and weight loss on my daughter's history. Not 18 rated but still not stuff I'm happy with her watching.

I'm also surprised the school allows youtube (though secondary school age children tend not to "go out to play" !!!).

I expect that the school has imposed channel blockers on youtube to ensure they DC can't view inappropriate content. I imagine that enterprising teenagers are probably finding a way round this, but equally the IT guy is working to stay on top of it. So I would trust the school in this.

Teachers and students use youtubve a lot for education these days so it can be hard to completly block the site. Think of Mr Bruff and Mr Salles for example. The school will have restrictions on content but the subject matter of many GCSE and A level literature texts is enough to send many parents in a spin.

My ds has been spending a lot of time watching some music bloke explain harmonies and chord structures for example.

Lots of businesses and educational establishments have restricted mode enabled in YouTube. I can't even access half of the UNICEF videos at work because it's deemed inappropriate content.

Restriction to content isn't based on your username for things like YouTube, it's based on the contract with the Internet Service Provider and will affect everyone using that IP.

So any kids using the normal school WiFi won't be able to access to content that the school has deemed inappropriate. Of course it depends on how they have defined that, so I would try and find that out first as it sounds like the IT guy is saying only 18+ content is restricted?

There are plenty of Arianna Grande music videos et al I wouldn't want my 9yr old watching. Are these accessible?

DD has a school supplied chromebook and there is loads of stuff they can't access when connected to the school network. Do you really think the school / local authority haven't got this locked down? Doesnt matter if its on youtube or via browser, they will have content blocks in place as they wont risk anyone seeing anything on their watch that is not age appropriate. Teachers will have different setting on their machines so they will have a wider access to YouTube than the students.

DD's chromebook is set up and controlled by the LA IT team - they can see everything that anyone looks at on the chromebook.

I'm surprised at them being allowed on YouTube at lunchtime though

It seems she will be filtered by school wifi then, so you need to set some controls on your broadband at home?

I would also approach it as a ‘contract’ with her. My contract with my dds includes

• I understand that anything I view or send is not private and that you reserve the right to monitor my internet activity
• i will only use the laptop in shared areas of the house and won’t hide the screen from you
• i will limit videos to x minutes a day
• I will not view or send anything I would not be happy with my parent, headteacher or granny knowing about
• I will use the internet to pursue my own education and interests and will avoid sites that are fads, involve bullying or sexual or sexist images
• I am aware that some sites can be harmful to teens and will not visit sites that promote things like unhealthy body image (pro-anorexia for example) or dating or allow personal messaging
• i know not everyone is who they say they are and will tell someone immediately if i receive an inappropriate message, someone threatening or blackmailing me or anything that worries me as these could be scammers, abusers or criminals.
• i won’t give out my personal details or bank account details
• i understand I will not be in trouble if i tell you about something i have done wrong, but i will be in trouble if i don’t tell you something and you later find out, and you will help me sort it out, but that there might be consequences such as loss of privileges
• i won’t download apps or social media without asking first.

it doesn't have to be anything extreme to be inappropriate. Just dumb, idiotic stuff - a waste of time and an unnecessery distraction if they need to be doing homework.

@EvaHarknessRose thanks for sharing that, I am going to try to adopt this with my daughter. I am aware that I cannot police everything she does online, especially when friends have phones she can see stuff on too, and I have already had a conversation about how I need her to take responsibiilty for her own internet use.

I have an app set up which restricts her device use to one hour a day on each of tablet and phone and I check her messages and youtube history from time to time. I have made it clear this is part of the deal if she wants to have internet devices. It is a minefield though and that's why I worry about her using a school device that I may not have such control over.

Ok I don't understand how to tag people.... it never seems to work when i do it.