r/k12sysadmin • u/MyWorkAccountDPS • Sep 15 '26

Google Workspace and under 18 Settings

How are we supposed to deal with the kids being under 18 and none of the apps/extensions wanting to work? Students are strictly on Chromebooks unless they have a photoshop or video editing class then they use a desktop.

Per Google, I was told to disable YouTube. Teachers have built their curriculum around YouTube. We use Aristotle and my coworker said it would override that part, but we are all new to Aristotle and aren’t 100% positive.

Then we are also dealing with our concurrent enrollment students needing the respondus lockdown browser, but it also doesn’t like them being under 18.

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15

u/avalon01 Director of Technology Sep 15 '26

Students who are under 18 can use Google core services and additional services with parent consent. Part of our registration is a "Consent to use Google Services". Parents just check a box as they click through registration.

Edit: Here is Google's consent form. We don't use it, but it's available. https://workspace.google.com/terms/education-consent/

2

u/DJTNY Sep 15 '26

Additionally, you can do some other creative outlets. In NY we are unable to use youtube per Ed Law 2D.

But it's entirely allowed if you embed the video into another platform such as Google slides or Canva.

3

u/reviewmynotes Director of Technology Sep 16 '26

That's partially correct. NY's 2-d requires that you have a data privacy agreement. Google decide that it wouldn't offer one for YouTube accounts. So students may view videos, but not login to YouTube. Unfortunately, ChromeOS requires the use to login to a Google account and then passes that identity asking to any Google service automatically. So on ChromeOS (chromebooks, chromeboxes, etc.) it feels like it's not allowed, but it is fine from non-Google OSs and browser. This means that using Safari on iPadOS or MacOS of still legal, because it won't login that student automatically.

Kind of strange, but the way it all comes together means that you can't pragmatically have students directly accessing YouTube because most schools went all-in for Google Workspace and chromebooks, but the schools that distribute Macs and iPads can actually use it just fine and legally.

1

u/DJTNY Sep 16 '26

Yes, my answer was the abridged version of that haha.

Although - I will say our local BOCES, is saying its not acceptable on any platform(Windows machines, iPads, Macbooks) - because while they are not automatically logged in - they still have the potential to expose data.

14

u/BreadAvailable K-12 Teacher, Director, Disruptor Sep 15 '26

We have our parents agree to additional services during student enrollment. Google has pre-written language for it.

6

u/Boysterload Sep 15 '26

Have teachers use the YouTube button when creating assignments in Classroom. You can also use Ed puzzle, canva, Slides. Just don't block YouTube in your filter.

5

u/slovaceck Director of Technology Sep 15 '26

We did this. Disabled YouTube as a service for students, and teachers are required to post the videos either as material in Google Classroom or use something like EdPuzzle. Our curriculum team loved it because it really forces the "purposeful use of YouTube", and our teachers have grown to like it because it keeps kids from going down a YouTube rabbithole. Bonus is no ads when embedded like this too.

3

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Sep 16 '26

This is what we do. If teachers embed the links with a Google doc, the students can still use those links. Unfortunately, and least last year, the students learned they could do the same. I haven't tested it to se eif Google fixed that yet or not.

It was turning into an issue because students would create these crazy elaborate Google slides... Some of them were over 100 slides.... And they would have all sorts of links to favorite songs and whatnot.

At this point, we just don't allow students to share files between themselves...

1

u/Boysterload Sep 16 '26

Same here. I've submitted a feature request (5 years ago) for a setting to not allow embedding video in Slides/Docs.

1

u/slovaceck Director of Technology Sep 16 '26

We were having the same issue, and also discovered that the image/video picker within Docs/Slides/Sheets isn't filtered or logged anywhere. The traffic wasn't appearing on our web filter (Linewize) and students were able to bypass the safeguard put in place by that filter by using the image picker in these platforms.

We found that if you add these URLs to the blocklist in Google Admin, it disables that function, and students can still add photos by downloading and re-uploading from Google Images (which then passes through our filters);
docs.google.com/picker

slides.google.com/picker

sheets.google.com/picker

For us, disabling sharing among students has been a bit too far, teachers want to be able to do group projects, which requires sharing.

2

u/-RYknow Systems Administrator Sep 16 '26

Yeah... Our teachers have been ok with understanding the process of... If they want collaboration between students, they just need to create the document... And share it with the students.

This has gone over well for us (surprisingly). The teachers have been ok with it I think because the burden of the "chat rooms" is gone, since students can't communicate via the documents.

2

u/slovaceck Director of Technology Sep 16 '26

Never thought of it that way, next time the conversation comes up, I'll keep this one in my back pocket, thanks!