Privacy and Online Monitoring and Filtering at Home (Families)

We provide helpful resources about Blake's 1 to 1 laptop program including an overview of the program, frequently asked questions, privacy and monitoring devices at home, and a brief history of the program.

We want to highlight a couple of frequently asked questions from families about technical solutions for monitor, filtering, or preventing non-school activities on a school-owned device.

Can I install software for students to monitor their own productivity and goals for use?

  • RescueTime: We recommend students install the free RescueTime application on their laptops to generate useful reports. This Chrome extension can help to self-monitor what you are doing when using a computer. An enhanced premium version of RescueTime with personal goal setting, site blocking, and detailed reporting is also available and recommended.  
  • Disney Circle Home Plus: This is a device that gets plugged into an outlet in your home and connected to your home wifi network. You then use an app to configure the various devices in your home that connect to your wifi network. Limits can set for specific times or certain websites/applications. Currently, it looks as if the cost of the device, including one year of use of the app, is $129. 

What do you recommend that we use at home to monitor our child’s use of their laptop or other devices?

Blake student parents and guardians often ask us for advice on how to monitor and regulate internet access at home. Over time, we have found the software as well as "Parental Controls" to be less and less reliable as the MacOS has become more and more secure. For more information, please read bit.ly/homefiltering.

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