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Comment by mynameisash | Hacker News Reader

> Google Classroom has a lot of users in the ed tech space.

As a parent of a kid with ADHD and a Chromebook, I'm appalled at how wide open access to everything on the Internet is on Chromebooks. Trying to keep him on track when there's the constant temptation and ability to alt-tab over to YouTube means my wife and I have to be ever vigilant that he's actually working.

No, his ADHD isn't Google's fault, but they're designing and deploying tools for lots of kids who have impulse control issues.

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There are copious and extensive managed access control technologies available for Chromebooks (and windows, and everything else). I mean, it's true that by default it's just a laptop-running-chrome and can get to anything. But that's not how my kids' schools deploy their Chromebooks, nor is it how we have their personal devices set up. Have you looked at Family Link, which is the default choice for this sort of thing? We've used Bark too. Both are sort of annoying to administer but do their advertised jobs pretty well.

I mean, yes, the internet is distracting, but...

Others commenting are, I think, missing the point: Chromebooks are school-issued and locked down to where I can't install software (or they're just not capable of it regardless of locking down). Even if I could, is it the expectation that every parent now has to monitor their kid's school-issued device? This should be handled at the Google or school district level, not at the individual device level.

And yes, I use Family Link and Android controls. Not great, but also not applicable to a device over which I have no control.

It should exclusively be handled at the school district level, assuming Google provides the ability to do so. Some schools, including private one, may want to allow full Internet access, and some not.

I'd argue that's not really something Google have wrong - parental/education control blockers aren't few and far between.

full disclosure: never used a chrome book.

That said, isn't there some nanny software available to install and block websites except the ones you whitelist? They should also have ability to set access time schedules so you could let them have a free for all after school time is over.

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