iBoss responsible for restricted Chromebook internet access

Posted Nov. 1, 2022

By Lily Beckham

Cub Reporter

The district lends each student a free Chromebook with internet access at every school all over campus, but with that freedom there must be restrictions on what students may or may not access. 

DDSD uses the iBoss filtering system. It filters out certain codewords and domains. To create these restrictions, all internet searches are monitored and anything that could possibly be even remotely inappropriate is flagged. 

“You can probably guess the obvious categories, such as pornography, violence, alcohol/drugs, guns, etc.,” said District Communications Coordinator Dan McCue.

However, there are many more categories. Not everything that’s been flagged is a “dangerous” site. A low scale survey amongst students highlighted that the most common source of outrage pertaining to website blocking was not the inability to look at illicit material, but the inability to use the viral website. “Coolmath.com is a gaming website with a wide variety of games popular with students. Most staff agree that that website is a distraction. DDSD spends more than $650,000 every four years on Chromebooks and their maintenance, and they cannot justify spending such a large amount of money for the student’s personal usage. The chromebooks must be beneficial to the student’s learning. 

“Certain top level domains are permitted, while others might get more scrutiny from iBoss," McCue said. 

Examples of Top Level Domains that are generally fine are websites ending in .org or .edu or .gov. Meanwhile, domains ending in .com or other commercial domains may get filtered more carefully. All online activity is monitored extremely carefully through the filter. When any activity is flagged, a DDSD staff member will review the report and determine whether or not it is safe. 

Sometimes, students will be assigned research but the website they need to access will be blocked. To rectify this, the teacher should reach out to the building principal or directly to the school IT department. The site will then be reviewed, and if it is clear, the student will have access to it. Most students and staff find that to be a tedious process, though. 

           “I had almost an hour of free time in class, and I couldn’t go to the library," said an anonymous  junior. "It was just me and my Chromebook, and I just had to sit there. I just don’t understand why we can’t access it and have teachers be more attentive to what we’re doing so people don’t take it for granted.” 

  Overall, the final decisions are up to the district and what they feel is beneficial to students in the educational process. Chromebooks are a minimum $250, and there are almost 3,000 students in the high school alone.  A huge chunk of the district’s budget goes towards technology, so it’s important to keep students safe online. Reckless internet usage, abusing school property, would not only be a bad look for the district, but could directly tie DDSD into whatever the student did.