HOME FILTERING & PARENTAL CONTROLS

Internet access for student devices is filtered while at school. For grade 5-9 students, Internet access is also filtered using Apple's built-in "Limit Adult Content" filters. For students in grade 10 and above, Internet access at home is not filtered, due to the wide range of family values relating to what parents and caregivers wish to allow their children to access while at home. This page is intended to provide some basic information for parents who wish to implement parental controls and filtering on their child's device while at home.

Please note: Shrewsbury Public Schools does not evaluate, endorse, or support the products listed or linked on this page. This information is being presented as a convenience for parents in their efforts to filter their home networks.

There are a number of approaches available for parents who wish to implement parental controls on their child's devices. However, in order prevent conflicts with the district's management system and to prevent required functionality from being unintentionally disabled during the school day, no parental controls may be used that require installation on the device itself.

The preferred approach for parental controls of student devices is to filter and control Internet access using your home network. There are three main approaches to this - you may choose the approach that works best for your family:

Use your router's built-in parental controls - This is generally the lowest-cost method and is built in to most routers but in some cases the setup may be involved. Please see the link for the manufacturer of your home router for more information:

Use a web-based service such as OpenDNS - This may be an effective option if your router does not have built-in parental controls. Depending on the plan you choose, there may be a cost involved.
Purchase a standalone product that plugs into your network such as Circle by Disney - This may be the easiest option to implement, however, depending upon the product chosen, there may be a cost involved. When choosing a product, please ensure that the product does not require installation onto the device directly.

Oak Middle School