Blocking games on Google search engine

[Bagpuss66]

Has anyone managed to block games that students can play on Google.

We have noticed students playing Pacman e.t.c.

Is it possible to block them on a Palo Alto firewall ?

[Julian]

Try blocking *google.com/doodles*

[Bagpuss66]

Try blocking *google.com/doodles*

 

Thank you I will try this out.

[Bagpuss66]

Just a Bump for this, has anyone managed to block it. Tried the above, still have students playing Pac-Man doodle.

[jessica]

We have blocked pacman using - *google.co.uk/logos/2010/pacman10-hp.html*

[Bagpuss66]

Still doesn't work ! Strange as we can easily block google doodles but it just won't block this particular one.

[TechMonkey]

Could they be running it locally?

 

Alternatively to look at it from a different perspective, why are you trying to block it? Are they playing it in lessons? Then that is a classroom management issue. Are they playing it out of lessons? Well that is a time management issue on their behalf, a supervision issue or a teaching issue if they have nothing to do.

[Bagpuss66]

It's students in Isolation. It should be a classroom management issue, but as there are different teachers on duty they simply don't bother watching our Lan School.

The students are restricted to what they can and cant look at on the computers. But obviously they need google for course work.

As there are only four computers in there it's easy for us to monitor. It's just a pain having to keep an eye on the little darlings!!

[Bagpuss66]

Bump Tried all the above suggestions. Still not working!

[Natalie_A89]

Have you tried something like Mineschool which will allow you do teach children through the minecraft game? that way they may be less tempted to go on to google to play games?

[Bagpuss66]

Have you tried something like Mineschool which will allow you do teach children through the minecraft game? that way they may be less tempted to go on to google to play games?

Wish we could, at the moment there's a crackdown on students playing games. Only coolmath and managahigh is allowed. The problem was only in the isolation room we have, the teacher in there now just bans the student if they are playing this particular game.

[Geronimo]

What i did for this, since we use google chrome, is just install the correct google enterprise version, import chrome GP Admin Templates, and adjust the "content settings" "Block JavaScript on these sites" in the group policy to include the sites. (for me, its was "google" because a user kept playing Solitaire from the search results)

[dsiefers]

What i did for this, since we use google chrome, is just install the correct google enterprise version, import chrome GP Admin Templates, and adjust the "content settings" "Block JavaScript on these sites" in the group policy to include the sites. (for me, its was "google" because a user kept playing Solitaire from the search results)

 

We have Chromebooks, and I've blocked Google Doodle games by using the same setting, only in the Google Admin console for our student domain. So far it looks like it is working.

[korifugi]

We've found if you block both

 

http://www.google.co.uk/logos/pacman10-hp-sprite.png

&

http://www.google.com/logos/fnbx/snake_arcade/

 

it'll stop both games working as they can't load properly - as for atari blockbreaker, we've had to turn to a caption ban in Impero for that one.

[dsiefers]

I've spent some more time refining this - currently in the Admin console I am blocking Javascript on Google, which seems to be taking care of doodles, logos, and any games that could come up on the main page. At the same time, I've specifically told it to Allow JavaScript on drive.google.com, classroom.google.com, etc, just in case, so our legit use of Google Apps doesn't get caught up in it. I say that it seems to be taking care of it, because you never know...it sometimes takes a bit of real world testing to find out if a block is truly functional or not. My testing seems to be showing you can pull up the games but no longer play them, anyway. The kids have more time to spend trying to make it work than I do.

 

At the web filter I also blocked elgoog.im and a domain on github.io that was mirroring some of these games.

Edited October 31, 2018 by dsiefers

[dsiefers]

We've been continuing to use these settings, and the biggest problem we've run into is that it blocks http://www.google.com/cloudprint as well. So if a student doesn't already have our cloud printer added to their Chromebook (they already should, but apparently some kids missed Add Your Printer Day or something) they can't use the cloudprint page when they follow our link to add the printer. I'm getting around this by unblocking for only that student long enough to get the printer added, and then turning the blocking back on for them.

[atechguy]

Bit of thread revival here. Plus not sure if its been mentioned. But ive found this

 

The Serene and Magestic Google Game Block - Extension

 

Extension id for GPO deployment is falnmchlgbngpmiifgbpgophmdflgiff;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx

 

Seems to work ok. Not sure if it effects anything else yet. might be worth a shot

Edited October 4, 2021 by atechguy

[mbateslyme]

Based on an earlier poster's note about blocking Javascript -- this seems to work, and I haven't (yet) figured out what else it breaks.

[jthompson]

May want to block the Google Doodle today. It's a collection of noisy arcade games. Blocking http://www.google.com/logos/2022/lawson/ seems to work.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

You can block https://www.google.com/logos/fnbx/solitaire to block the solitaire one

[itguy2441]

To block games, you can try using an extension like this?

 

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/games-blocker/dcaikidbolchfhcieemjijhdefmomnnh

[NeoNebula]

We always try to block all kinda games, especially those like Pac-Man or Tetris. But our students always come up with some new ways to play them.So, I would say that trying to block *google.com/doodles* doesn't really work all the time.

[Hims22]

You can try this url pattern: google\.\w{1,3}(?:\.\w{1,3})?

also, you need to make sure search engine is being HTTPS inspected.

[sigma]

We use Netsweeper, but use the technique in this thread, worked for us:

https://help.clouduss.com/ws-knowledge-base/blocking-embedded-games-in-google-search

 

So, in Netsweeper parlance, I block the keywords:

Femvve, for pacman

pKhWu, for snake

UixVIb, for minesweeper

 

and logos/fnbx

[Warwick_Tech]

To bring a thread back from the dead -

 

I'm trying this method with extentions; it works on both Edge and Chrome;

 

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/block-google-games-doodle/jcfaaaijdgdmoehalinacnficpfihnoe

 

Push it out as a 'forced' extention and away you go