Washington, DC (June 29, 2021) – Google is implementing several major changes to Chromebooks and its suite of education products to make them safer for millions of K-12 students worldwide. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and its allies have been pressing Google for years to proactively do more to protect kids from harmful material, and even predators, through their products. Most recently, NCOSE named Chromebooks to its 2021 Dirty Dozen List, an annual list of mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation.

As of September 1, 2021, Google is launching several changes suggested by NCOSE. Chromebooks (and Chrome OS) for primary and secondary schools will have safety settings set to default, meaning they can only be changed with administrative privileges: SafeSearch will be on; Enable Guest Browsing will be off; Incognito Mode will be off; and SafeSites will be on (blocking explicit URLs). What’s more, all those in K-12 that currently have a school-issued Chromebook will be updated with these significant improvements