Yes, it is legal, and in England since 1 September 2026 a school that did not do it would be falling short of statutory guidance. There is monitoring software on your child’s school laptop. Most parents cannot name it. Children can, and the thing they most often search for is how to turn it off.
What it does. It blocks websites. It logs what was opened and for how long. It reads what your child types and searches, and flags anything that looks like self-harm, bullying or violence. A teacher can watch the screen live and lock the device. Some versions also show the school what pupils type into AI tools.
Who makes it. In America, GoGuardian, Securly, Gaggle and Lightspeed. In Britain, Smoothwall covers around 40% of schools on its own figures, alongside Impero, Senso, NetSupport and Securus. Securus monitors personal devices as well as school ones and supplies screenshots as evidence. Securly says it reaches 20 million pupils. Most parents have never heard of any of them.
What the law requires. Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 came into force at the start of this term. Schools must have filtering and monitoring in place, must review how well it works every year, must write down what they tested and what they found, and cannot hand the job to the IT team or the supplier. It now covers generative AI. Separate Department for Education standards require blocklists that cannot be switched off, activity reports that trace an incident to an individual, and the same standard of cover on a pupil’s own device as on a school one. They also tell schools to block VPNs and proxies.
What is not in there is any duty to tell you. The guidance sets out detailed requirements on systems, reviews and record-keeping. We found nothing requiring a school to tell a pupil or a parent that monitoring is running, what it captures, or when a child has been flagged. The Department’s own page would not load for us, so take that as what we found rather than as settled.
In America the same question went to court and was not answered. The Knight First Amendment Institute sued a Texas school district for records on how it uses this software. The district said the records were exempt on network-security grounds. The appeal was dismissed on 26 June 2026 at the Institute’s own request, with no ruling either way.
Does it work at home too? Usually. These products sit on the device rather than the school network, so they travel with the laptop.
Can the school see what my child types into an AI chatbot? Some can. At least one of these companies sells schools prompt-level visibility of AI tools, and the new guidance brings generative AI into the monitoring duty. Whether your child’s school bought that is worth asking.
Will you be told if your child is flagged? We could not find anything requiring it. Schools must have a defined response and must be able to trace an incident to an individual. Whether that includes telling you appears to be the school’s own policy.
What this means for you right now
Find out which one it is. Look in the browser’s extension list on the device. It is usually visible even where it cannot be removed. Or ask for the acceptable use policy, or ask the school office. Schools do not hide this. They are simply not often asked.
Then ask three things. What does it capture, websites only or what my child types and writes as well? Does it follow the device home, and does it stop at bedtime? Who sees an alert, and am I told when my child is flagged? In England there is a fourth: when was the system last reviewed, and what did the review find. Since September they are supposed to have that written down.
And know that most bypass methods stop working, which is why children keep re-dating the searches. How to get past it on school chromebook 2025. The year is there because the software updates. The part worth a conversation at home is that your child knows they are being watched and went to a search engine about it rather than to you.
Rules where you live are in the tracker, 47 countries, every row dated.
Checked 29 September 2026.
Sources:
- Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, in force 1 September 2026, via UK Safer Internet Centre and SWGfL
- Department for Education filtering and monitoring standards, via SWGfL
- Directory of UK Safety Tech Providers, GOV.UK, last updated 6 March 2024
- Knight First Amendment Institute v. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Texas Seventh Court of Appeals No. 07-26-00263-CV, dismissed 26 June 2026
