Filtering at home on managed Chromebooks

[tmoon-mint]

Hi all,

 

Need some help please. I have been tasked with letting students take Chromebooks home over the christmas holidays and I need something to provide web filtering while they are at home.

 

The school currently use RM Safetynet in school but I requested some information about their Chromebook filtering a week ago and havent had a response.

 

What would you guys recommend? Would Securly be able to do it or something similar?

[colly72]

We're using Senso for this (https://senso.cloud) Works well and you can also include the safeguarding module to further protect students.

[paulkerton]

Securly, Lightspeed and Senso can all do this, yeah.

[tmoon-mint]

Thanks all. Think we are going to trial Senso. Not that I have much time left to trial and test it before they go out

[dhicks]

I have been tasked with letting students take Chromebooks home over the christmas holidays

 

Short notice! We use Securly, I think Smoothwall also have a similar service available now, too. Might be worth pointing out that (for Securly, anyway) the filtering is done by a client-side app, pushed out to the user account rather than a specific device, so in theory a child using their school account would have their fltering settings follow them wherever they happened to log in to a ChromeOS device. That might not work for CloudReady machines, but does seem to work for all our dedicated ChromeOS devices. For managed ChromeOS devices, you maybe need to check what the school's / parents expectations are for outside-hours use - are children going to be allowed to log on to school-managed devices with a private account so they can play games and so forth once the school day is over, or is the device going to be limited to only allow school accounts to log in, so the filtering settings will always be in effect?

[tmoon-mint]

Short notice! We use Securly, I think Smoothwall also have a similar service available now, too. Might be worth pointing out that (for Securly, anyway) the filtering is done by a client-side app, pushed out to the user account rather than a specific device, so in theory a child using their school account would have their fltering settings follow them wherever they happened to log in to a ChromeOS device. That might not work for CloudReady machines, but does seem to work for all our dedicated ChromeOS devices. For managed ChromeOS devices, you maybe need to check what the school's / parents expectations are for outside-hours use - are children going to be allowed to log on to school-managed devices with a private account so they can play games and so forth once the school day is over, or is the device going to be limited to only allow school accounts to log in, so the filtering settings will always be in effect?

 

I know its incredibly short notice and stressing me out. These are to be used for online lessons so I suspect they will be restricted to school accounts only with content filtering always in force. That is down to the school to decide though and either way parents must know what to expect as you say. The christmas holidays cant come soon enough.

[dhicks]

The christmas holidays cant come soon enough.

 

If it's any help, do bear in mind that, once you have a managed Chromebook device, you don't have to physically visit that device to install software / settings, so you could prioratise getting the device to the children first, then roll out / refine the blocking capabilities afterwards.

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi @tmoon-mint

 

Lightspeed can do this. I can arrange a trial that would see you over Christmas if you need?

[PrimaryNetMan]

Securly @Securly_Marc will be able to sort you out a trial that will cover the holiday period.

[Joeloman]

I would recommend talking to Smoothwall if you are short on time, mainly because they have a very good product for Chromebooks but also the simplicity of the GDPR.

This is because it is at least very difficult in Sweden to get through a company that is outside the EU, even if they say that they comply with the GDPR on students' data, it is also a matter of having support for the system outside the EU.

 

As well as the harsh sanction that American companies must have a back door to their authority.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Joeloman

[F_admin]

I'd also recommend speaking to Smoothwall. Their Cloud Filter service is brilliant and very quick/easy to setup.

[tmoon-mint]

Securly @Securly_Marc will be able to sort you out a trial that will cover the holiday period.

 

Hi @Securly_Marc

 

Could you drop me a PM as I am very interested in this. Time is very short so any assistance you can provide would be most appreciated.

[sippo]

I'd also recommend speaking to Smoothwall. Their Cloud Filter service is brilliant and very quick/easy to setup.

 

We trialled it but never got on with it. We have onsite smoothwall, but their cloud option wasn't customisable. It's probably changed now. What are the costs?

[Primus]

We trialled it but never got on with it. We have onsite smoothwall, but their cloud option wasn't customisable. It's probably changed now. What are the costs?

 

It's included in the price of your Smoothwall subscription and uses the same filtering rules as on prem or you can customise them for offsite.

[Joeloman]

A little explanation regarding Smoothwall Cloud Filter.

To get started quickly, everything is done from the cloud.

This means that everyone has the same rules and that you can not get any reports.

This was what Smoothwall offered schools for free in the early days of Covid-19.

 

You can then install a local Smoothwall as a firewall and / or web filter for BYOD etc.

(If you already have a local Smoothwall, it is quick to get the Cloud Filter up and running with the same rules.)

 

If you do not need a local Smoothwall, you can install it virtually with yourself or a local ISP, as we at least in Sweden do not want this information lying in large clouds.

 

Everything that is done is replicated between the local Smoothwall and the Cloud Filter.

 

It is in the local Smoothwall that you enter links to the Google account and groups so that you can have different filters for different ages.

We allow e.g. not students who are 10 years old to have a fake facebook account.

 

It is also in the local Smoothwall that you set up reports and warnings via SMS and e-mail if someone is looking for e.g. suicide.

 

As for the price, I do not know what it costs in the UK.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Joeloman

[tmoon-mint]

All setup using Senso. Very quick and easy to setup. Thank you @colly72 I am very pleased with the result. Now that I have a solution in place I feel much better handing them out to the children.

 

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. As always Edugeek is the place to come when you're having a stress.

[Securly_Marc]

@tmoon-mint - Sent you a PM with all the Securly info you need

[ChrisSpinkSecurly]

I'd recommend taking a look at Securly for Filtering. It is great for safeguarding leads with simplified reports and live email alerts for any flagged events. No client needs to be installed. https://www.securly.com/filter - Extension can be pushed to Edge and Chrome, SmartPac and DNS. It also has a great parent app for filtering at home on school owned devices.

[Unforgettable]

Which advanced filter would you reccomend for a personal chromebook

[Joeloman]

Take a look at Qustodio.
https://www.qustodio.com

 

They usually come out on top in various independent tests.

They are part of the Qoria group which also includes Smoothwall...

So they will probably continue to develop with more high end features.