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Today’s digital classroom pairs streamlined curriculum delivery with limitless resources to enable learning. To help ensure that this pairing truly benefits K-12 students, important steps need to be taken to protect them as they explore online, which include enabling SafeSearch. An online search, better known as Googling, makes every type of information under the sun accessible to students as they work in an online learning environment. Yet not all results of Google Search are the kind of content that benefits learning and discovery suitable for K-12 students. When school administrators activate SafeSearch for students, it helps keep kids away from inappropriate content.
This blog will outline a multi-level approach to internet safety for students, beginning with how to enable safe browsing for learners while they use Google Classroom and the internet. We will follow with a broader interpretation of a safe search to include tips on how to add layers of protection in the classroom and at the institutional level. While primarily focusing on online safety in K-12 schools, this information may be useful to other concerned adults like parents, counselors and librarians.
What SafeSearch is and why it is important
K-12 learners need to be protected whether they are working online in a classroom or on a school device at home. To make this a reality, schools must prevent explicit content such as graphic violence or sexual activity from showing up in student search results. That is why understanding how to turn on the SafeSearch setting is a critical first step.
In Google Workspace for Education and Google Classroom, this automatic browser-level filter reduces risk to learners while using a school device or while logged into their student account. Once SafeSearch detects explicit content on Google Search, it will block or blur this content, depending on which setting is selected.
Online risks for learners and schools
To understand the importance of SafeSearch, it helps to understand the risks. The United States government site that addresses cyber safety for K-12 schools and districts, lists risks in the following order:
- Cyberbullying
- Inappropriate content
- Sexting
- Oversharing
- Online enticement
- Sexstorion
To help prevent incidents caused by the above online threats, the authors of the site make these recommendations:
- Responsible use policies to help ensure that students are made aware of appropriate online behavior
- Filtering and blocking software used at schools to prevent access to inappropriate content
- Education for students, staff and families that covers the risks of being online as well as how to stay safe
Inappropriate content
In terms of student search results, let’s explore why inappropriate content is a serious concern. There are several types of inappropriate content. A game that a young person is allowed to play during recess or at home can be considered inappropriate content during a class period when school work needs to be done or while at school in general.
Some images or text simply fall outside of what is appropriate for a learner’s age or development. Viewing this content can become a distraction that shifts their focus away from their school work. Certain content can be jarring and stressful for young people..
On the far end of the spectrum is explicit, exploitative or violent content that is far outside the scope of being appropriate for most adults, much less children. Violent or explicit content can be detrimental to their mental health and ability to function well, especially if viewed repeatedly. All these types of content exist online. Without proper measures in place, inappropriate content may appear in search results in thumbnails of images, as pop-up ads or in videos.
How to enable the SafeSearch setting in Google Classroom
Ensuring that Google searches are protected is the first line of defense that both schools and parents can take against the risks listed above. Enabling SafeSearch protects learners by blocking inappropriate content that they may encounter while searching online. Tools such as screen monitoring and powerful web filtering software are additional levels of protection we discuss below.
To begin, school administrators can enable SafeSearch for students within Google Classroom by accessing the Google Admin Console and activating the SafeSearch filtering option for all student accounts. This option will automatically filter all harmful or inappropriate content on learners’ Google tabs while they are logged into their school account.
Three levels of filtering available with SafeSearch
- Filter: Blocks explicit images, text and links
- Blur: Blurs explicit images however text and links that are explicit may show
- Off: All relevant results including potentially explicit are shown
Limitations to SafeSearch
SafeSearch has limitations which affect its effectiveness. First it is browser-specific, meaning that only searches on Google will be protected, so students could type in a URL to their favorite gaming site for example. Setting levels and sensitivity are also limited as well as other technicalities.
Classroom tips to reduce distraction and promote safe online learning
In the classroom, educators can add another level of protection and promote a distraction-free learning environment through classroom management practices and tools.
The danger of distraction for students
Distraction may seem a less threatening risk in comparison to the above dangers. In some ways that is true. However, even distractions as benign as engaging in a color-matching game steal valuable time from classroom activities learners need to be involved in. Over time the constant inability to stay focused on and follow through with the task at hand can be detrimental to student growth, academic success and future earning power.
How to manage safe and focused browsing
Educators can shelter student browsing by limiting what is accessible to certain websites. Hāpara Highlights is a classroom management tool that supports learning in Google Classroom. It allows educators to manage student browsing in a supportive, non-intrusive way.
Features that promote safe, distraction-free learning include Focus Sessions and Filter Sessions. To give students parameters for research or other online assignments, educators can set up a Filter Session that prevents students from accessing specific problematic sites during a given amount of time. This allows students to access any site except those designated by the teacher.
For online assessments or times when a particular assignment calls for increased focus on one website (or a select few), educators can set up a Focus Session with a set of websites. These will open on learners’ devices and be the only sites or pages accessible.
Other features like close or block tabs can also be used to ensure learners a safe browsing experience. To make it easier to prevent individual learners from continuously visiting distracting websites, educators using Highlights, teachers can now click on the X next to a learner’s tab and block it for that student. They can select a duration time for blocking the tab, including for the entire class period. This makes it easier to keep all learners focused, including those particularly prone to distraction without drawing attention to them in a punitive way.
The opportunity to learn online while receiving educator support in the context of a classroom gives students valuable practice for the future. Educators who team with the right edtech tools can help learners develop practical discernment skills to address online distractions, which can serve them throughout their academic careers and in the workplace.
School-wide protection with web filtering software
The next level of protection is at the school or district level. When an institution implements a powerful web filter, it helps provide a safe online learning environment for learners, staff and teachers. Internet filters function by blocking or allowing access to certain websites. Some school districts control and monitor internet access through the use of criteria software or hardware-based solutions.
Student safety
Whenever learners are on devices at school, parameters must be in place so they can navigate the internet safely. Ensuring secure and appropriate online learning environments is a top priority for school districts. It is critical to prevent students from having access to inappropriate, harmful or distracting content during school hours.
Federal compliance
Schools and districts are legally required to ensure the safety of each and every student. Due to the proven effectiveness of web filters, implementing a web filter to protect children from accessing harmful or obscene content has become obligatory in most K-12 settings as part of the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
Time management and digital citizenship for students
Learners need support staying away from distracting websites. Web filters reduce opportunities for students to lose focus on their assignments during class time. Schools can set their filter to limit access to popular game sites, for example.
Web filtering options for schools
Filters can restrict content-based on keywords, categories and website addresses or with AI technology. Both types of web filters allow administrators to protect learners from accessing harmful and inappropriate content, as well as block distractors such as games and social media without restricting learning content.
A DNS Web Filter
A DNS web filter is an affordable option that provides the next level of protection for schools and districts. When students try to access a webpage that has been tagged as inappropriate, they are redirected to a landing page and notified that the previous website has been blocked. It ensures that the Child’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is being adequately followed and can be adjusted and customized depending on different policies or student needs.
An AI Web Filter
When it becomes too time consuming for technology administrators to constantly maintain lists, subjects and websites that are harmful or inappropriate, an AI filter is the best solution. It analyzes and filters content on the internet in real time, and is regularly updated to stay on top of the new content that is continuously uploaded.
Through the use of AI this filter analyzes and filters the content on learners’ tabs whether that’s text, images, links or videos. Then the AI feature blurs or restricts explicit content. For example, the lone image that pops up in a Google search or in an otherwise-appropriate YouTube video is blurred instantaneously. With this precise filtering, schools can safely allow learners to freely browse a full range of online content. Like the DNS filter, it fulfills compliance with CIPA guidelines.
Access to a safe and appropriate online learning environment is a crucial foundation for K-12 students as they build toward their futures. To support this process, lawmakers, edtech companies and school administrators need to work as a team to provide tech solutions such as SafeSearch, legislation like CIPA, and oversight. Creating a valuable learning experience for students starts with educators having the necessary resources, security and direction to do their jobs well.
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