Screen monitoring for student safety

Tansy Velush

GoGuardian is a software that allows teachers to block websites that aren’t academic related and it allows teachers to get alerts about if students are googling phrases that are dangerous

Let’s say you finish all your work in a class and the teacher allows you to have free time.  You go on Google and type in your favorite game such as Fortnite.  You click on the website and to your horror, it’s blocked by GoGuardian!  Even though that may upset people, software like GoGuardian are actually very efficient and effective that can save lives in many cases.  

GoGuardian is a software that allows teachers to block websites that aren’t academic related and it allows teachers to get alerts about if students are googling phrases that are dangerous, suicidal. GoGuardian also allows teachers to be able to view student’s screens anytime they want. If you switch onto a tab that contains a game, for example, your teacher would then call you out and tell you to get back to work.  Or they would then block that tab and set a mode to where you can only work on school work.    

According to the GoGuardian’s website, about two weeks after installing the software, student safety subject matter expert Tracy Clemonts received the first Active Planning Alert.  A student had been on Google, researching suicidal things. Clemonts went to the student’s house and knocked on the door.  When the  student answered,  Clemonts asked the student “Do you know why I’m here?” and the student broke down, crying and sobbed “because I’m about to kill myself.” 

Although GoGuardian saves people, it does have some flaws.  One example is auto blocking websites that it deems “unacademic” or “unreliable” when the websites are actually for school.  Such as the website Reddit.  Reddit is a great site for finding people’s opinions on things. GoGuardian doesn’t seem to want people to get unprofessional opinions.  Another example is invasion of privacy. GoGuardian allows teachers to have access to your screen anytime they want.  I individually find this invading my privacy because what if I’m checking my emails?  I don’t want teachers seeing all my emails for just privacy reasons.  

I, personally, love playing games on my computer when I finish my work.  I find it relaxing and rewarding so I found GoGuardian to be frustrating when I found out my favorite games were being blocked.  But as I learned more about GoGuardian’s purpose, I realized that it’s more for protecting students and keeping everyone safe.  

Even though GoGuardian blocks fun games, it saves lives and that’s more important than a kid filling their head with distractions.  GoGuardian isn’t intended to be some annoying, pointless software; it’s here to save real people and to keep our community mentally, and physically happy and healthy.