GoGuardian and Its Reasons for Implementation
As technology becomes increasingly integrated into modern education, global concerns over youth cybersecurity have grown. To battle these online threats, the United States has implemented two main federal statutes: the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
In accordance with these statutes, the Malden Public Schools administration has decided to adopt GoGuardian, an AI-driven web-filtering program for school-issued devices for the 2026-2027 school year, following a successful trial with three K-8 schools in the spring of 2026, focusing not only on student safety but also on meaningful learning.
“We piloted the program, surveyed educators and students, reviewed multiple products, and used all of that information to inform our decision,” shared Assistant Superintendent Komal Bhasin.
GoGuardian was founded in 2014 with the primary goal of creating a secure online environment for students. The program flags harmful or explicit content as inaccessible, but administrators and educators can also restrict or unblock desired websites. Therefore, trigger words relating to violence, sexual content, or self-harm will be filtered.
Teachers are also able to monitor student screens from their own devices and close off-task tabs, but the access only exists during the school day. However, any administrative bans will continue to exist outside of school hours, such as the restriction on YouTube.
Before GoGuardian, the district utilized iboss, another cybersecurity program. The district has not shifted from one to the other; instead, Malden “added GoGuardian as an additional layer of protection,” explained Bhasin.
Bhasin noted that iboss was “not designed exclusively for schools,” as it does have uses in schools, but is most commonly used in workspaces. GoGuardian provides more nuanced filtering, meaning inappropriate content gets blocked while legitimate educational content can still get through,” Bhasin expressed.
Bhasin expanded upon another key difference between iboss and GoGuardian, as GoGuardian grants both the district and educators the ability to override a specific site’s block, which was not possible with iboss.
Additionally, an administrative decision made by the Malden School Committee was to block access to YouTube on Chromebooks and school accounts. The YouTube ban was not linked to GoGuardian (although implemented through it), but was influenced by the company’s refusal to protect student data.
Under COPPA, YouTube promised to halt data collection on minor-focused content in 2019 after it was found that the company was actively collecting children’s data without parental consent. However, in August 2025, YouTube changed its policies on how it identifies data collection from minors, creating controversies around online safety.
Bhasin emphasized that “as a public school,” Malden has a duty to protect its students from having their “data sold or exposed,” particularly when websites leverage that data for targeted advertising. However, Bhasin also recognized that when a student accesses YouTube on a “personal device at home,” that is a choice belonging strictly to them and their families, “not a choice a public school district can make on behalf of children.”
In light of this issue, junior Anya Grzegorzewski argued that while she understands that “legally the school has every right to use GoGuardian,” interference with accessing resources and “getting work done” has created an unintended consequence.
Alongside the security factor, educators across the district were challenged by YouTube distracting students from completing assignments. Analyzing student screen time on Chromebooks, Bhasin found that YouTube was one of the most visited sites by students last year; therefore, after its ban, students are “spending more time on tasks.”
Junior Lyra Heining pointed out that this “helps students take more accountability” for how class time is spent.
Pros and Cons
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major catalyst for introducing digitalized education into the school curricula for convenience and efficiency; however, this short-term solution had unintended long-term consequences for middle and high school students. Along with a decrease in social skills, large joint studies from Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth found that school districts with longer periods of remote learning experienced the steepest losses in the subjects of reading and math.
Sophomore Edom Abrhame recalled that she “found it significantly harder to stay focused and fully understand certain topics” during COVID because she “could not interact” with teachers and peers effectively.
The drop in literacy can be linked back to distracting technology use, but also to the rise of artificial intelligence. Having access to AI has made students prone to using the software to complete their work, undermining the academic aspect of school. This prevents the development of core critical thinking and math skills, leaving a gaping hole in student education.
However, with the use of GoGuardian, educators are now able to monitor student screens and prevent AI usage during school hours. AP Seminar and sophomore English teacher Anne Mooney shared how the program has made it possible for her to “switch from paper to the Chromebooks.” Concerned with AI usage and plagiarism in the past, Mooney had resorted to paper assignments, but now, with GoGuardian, she has the assurance that student work produced in class is original thought.
Similarly, AP Chemistry teacher Katherine Shank commented that when students take notes in her class, some will “have the notes up on their computer because they can see it better,” but if she notices off-task behavior, she “pulls up the notes for them” to remind them of what needs attention.
Mooney, Shank, and Media teacher James Valente all highlighted a rise in productivity among their students compared to last year. With restricted technological domains and constant oversight, students are discouraged from straying away from the task at hand. Valente described it as a “light slap on the wrist,” as it reroutes them back to their “one shot at education.”
This educator access to student screens is also something that the district lacked with iboss. Although both iboss and GoGuardian alert staff when students are on inappropriate sites, GoGuardian provides schools with the ability to directly see “which sites were accessed,” detailed Bhasin.
Despite the educational and security gains, GoGuardian is faced with several technological and ethical issues. The primary concern is teaching students responsible tech use rather than implementing a regulating policy. While the policy prevents off-task and unsafe behavior, it does not build students’ time management or safe tech-use skills.
Valente emphasized that high school is the building block for the next step of students’ lives and that public schools need to prepare students for a future where their device use will not be regulated.
“There is a time and place for everything. You need to learn the time and place here because at the next level it is going to cost you money and time, and you cannot get that back. At least in high school, it’s a bruise; it can heal. [In the future], it’s a limb that gets cut off.”
Moreover, with the YouTube ban, teachers like Shank and Valente, whose lesson plans heavily incorporated the website, are having to adapt to the resource no longer being accessible to students. Therefore, both teachers had to go through the tedious process of uploading the content to a hard drive and saving it in Google Drive. However, the process only works if an individual owns the video—this would not work for a teacher attempting to save a copyrighted video such as a CrashCourse video.
Senior Cat Nguyen voiced how she has witnessed multiple teachers having to “change their lesson plans midway through class because of GoGuardian blocking an article, video, or resource they had been using for years.”
Senior Raquel Ferreira suggested giving teachers “more access to the bypass code” to prevent wasted class time. Ferreira also recalled that over the summer she was trying to access specific websites for her summer work, but “most were blocked or restricted, making it impossible to do any of the work through a school-based Chromebook.”
As a result, some students, such as senior Amelia Berliner and juniors Gianna Bilodeau and Minerva Davenport, have resorted to bringing their personal device to school.
Shank stated that it can be “frustrating” because there is a lot of “good educational content” on YouTube, such as the “Amoeba Sisters for biology,” but the resource is no longer available to share with students. She also highlighted that this creates an issue for teachers who relied on “Edpuzzle assignments” for when they were out, as to give access to the videos, the teachers need to be “physically present in the room with the students.”
Junior AP Research student Sophia Zhang relayed that at the start of the year, “AP Classroom was blocked by GoGuardian and so were many research websites, including EBSCO,” but this has since been fixed. To this day, Zhang is “irritated” due to several sites, such as Oxford Academic and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, remaining restricted.
Junior Ruby Neicth Forbes added that it can be “difficult to access blocked websites from home as teachers cannot unblock them.”
Meanwhile, Valente’s class faced issues with accessing specialized media platforms and contacting organizations they have worked with in the past. “My advanced media class does a lot of work with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, but we cannot go to their website because it has the word ‘sex’ in it. Also, when you are working with a deadline, waiting for the technicians to solve the problem is not feasible,” he remarked.
K-8 Schools
While much of the debate surrounding GoGuardian has centered on Malden High School, the program was first piloted in Salemwood, Beebe, and Linden, where educators generally reported positive experiences. For middle school teachers, the platform has addressed many of the classroom management challenges that emerged after the district expanded Chromebook use during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meghan Bowe, an eighth-grade math teacher at the Forestdale School, described herself as a “huge fan” of the program. Having previously taught seventh-grade science, Bowe explained that device use often required constant supervision. “It was just a constant battle of get off YouTube, get off the game, get off whatever they’re doing when they’re supposed to be doing their work,” she commented.
Frustrated by distractions, Bowe shifted much of her instruction to paper assignments. Similar to Mooney, GoGuardian’s introduction has made it easier for Bowe to utilize online educational programs while ensuring students remain focused on their work. She added that, in the past, teachers had to circulate throughout the room to keep students on task, but now they can provide individualized support while maintaining oversight of the entire class.
Likewise, eighth-grade ELA teacher Joshua Titcomb at Linden STEAM Academy noted that GoGuardian has been particularly effective during intervention periods when students work independently online. He observed that “100% of the children are on IXL,” and if a student wanders off task, a simple notification redirects them. While Titcomb has largely moved his curriculum on paper due to concerns about AI and plagiarism, he acknowledged that the monitoring tool has contributed to greater productivity when Chromebooks are used.
Similarly, James Workman, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Beebe, explained that while he has largely transitioned back to paper-based assignments because many students struggle to manage the distractions that come with having a Chromebook constantly available, he has still seen a “significant uptick” in productivity when GoGuardian is used.
Although Workman believes students must eventually learn to navigate digital tools and emerging technologies, he viewed GoGuardian as a practical “middle ground” that prevents diversions and preserves access to resources.
The Big Picture
Ultimately, the debate surrounding GoGuardian reflects a much larger conversation taking place in schools across the district. While educators generally agree that technology is now an unavoidable part of modern education, many remain concerned about how quickly digital tools are being introduced into classrooms without fully understanding their long-term effects on student learning.
Mooney argued that schools need to be more cautious as AI and educational software become increasingly embedded in daily instruction. “I just think we need to slow down,” she expressed. “We don’t know enough, and I really worry about how this is impacting students.”
Although she acknowledged that students must be prepared for a technology-driven world, she emphasized the importance of carefully evaluating new programs before placing them at the center of students’ educational experiences.
Teachers also stressed that technology should enhance learning rather than replace it. Valente noted that some of the most important aspects of education occur through face-to-face interactions, where students exchange ideas, read body language, and engage in meaningful discussion. While he believes tools such as ChatGPT can be useful when used appropriately, he warned against allowing them to do the learning for students.
As a result, GoGuardian’s success will depend less on its ability to restrict students and more on whether it helps them develop the judgment and independence to succeed without those restrictions.
About the Author
