Filtering Current Events to Promote Safe Digital Learning

Shielding kids online can be a very daunting task for parents and schools, where every scroll brings the potential for a surprising news headline or a viral video. That’s why Lightspeed Filter™ provides school districts with the essential tools to promptly restrict access to sensitive content, effectively filtering current events. Whether it’s during natural disasters or global conflicts, you can rely on Lightspeed Filter to safeguard students of all ages from potentially harmful websites, videos, and images on YouTube, TikTok, X.com (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and more. 

Here are some powerful features you can find in Lightspeed Filter to surface actionable insights and quickly block access during challenging times. 

Ensure Safe YouTube Access

Filter current events by ensuring your school district has YouTube SmartPlay enabled so that only educational content is allowed on YouTube. This Lightspeed Filter-proprietary AI (artificial intelligence) technology categorizes YouTube content and enables your districts to block thumbnails, comments, and sidebars. Nearly 200 million YouTube videos have been categorized to date.  

Additionally, return the focus to learning by blocking YouTube Shorts by quickly creating a custom block list using *.youtube.com/hashtag/shorts/*. 

Lastly, provide parents the ability to block YouTube after school through the Lightspeed Parent Portal. Or, conversely, use after-school rules to block YouTube altogether outside of the school day. 

Moderate Social Media Access

Turn on read-only mode, or completely block Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, and Pinterest so students can’t access real-time and uncensored information on sensitive content. 

Review Most Accessed Websites

Use reporting from Lightspeed Filter to determine what potential harmful websites are most frequently being visited, and recategorize or block completely as needed.  

Reevaluate Allowed and Blocked Searches

View Lightspeed Filter’s top allowed and blocked searches report to identify topics and sites students are searching for and assess the level of interest in a harmful topic or current event. Where and when appropriate, block searches on specific terms. 

Uncover Student Web Usage Behavior Based on Pre-Set Terms

Are kids getting access to explicit footage of something in the news? Select terms in either a search query or on a term on a webpage on which you want to receive notifications. Trigger immediate, daily, and/or weekly notifications so you can immediately block any concerning web results. 

Summary

News and current events can be distracting to students and, in some cases, disturbing and harmful. In filtering current events to keep your students safe and effectively learning, utilize the full breadth of capabilities of Lightspeed Filter and the rest of Lightspeed Systems’ suite of edtech products. 

If you’re a Lightspeed Systems customer, contact your Client Success Manager with any questions or concerns you might have. If you’re not a Lightspeed Systems customer yet, please hit that “Request a Demo” button in the upper right corner and let us show you the state of the art in edtech.