GAT Labs
Becoming CIPA compliant with Google Workspace for Education
CIPA Compliance and Google Workspace for Education
Google Workspace for Education has become the most popular cloud platform among schools and districts, with over 70 million users, including teachers, students and administrators, according to Google.
With that, schools can now communicate and collaborate better inside and outside the classroom, saving on operational costs and incorporating online classes while teaching students the best practices on how to use technology.
CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) is a federal law in the US that requires all K12 schools and libraries to ensure that their students are protected from any harmful online content and/or practices.
If your school allows children to access the internet, you need to be able to track access to inappropriate content on the school and library computers, and you must adopt and implement an “Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures,” that “must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) or harmful to minors.” and also ensure “the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms and other forms of direct electronic communications.” according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Complementing Google Workspace for Education CIPA Compliance
With GAT Shield, not only can you see granular detail in real-time for all the browsing activity of your users, but you can also view the exact URL as outlined in the following post:
How to View the Full URL of Browsing History
On top of that, we’ve recently launched a new section under the GAT Shield Configuration area titled ‘General & CIPA’
By simply clicking this box, GAT Shield enables CIPA compliance over your entire domain or any selected group, organisation unit or set of users.
When this is activated the following features will be enabled:
A special URL filtering category called CIPA-Compliant-Category is enabled and all sites under this category are blocked.
Strict Safe Search for both words and images is enabled on Google search (Age-appropriate content).
Restricted YouTube access is enabled (Age-appropriate content).
Access to web sites via IP addresses is blocked (this blocks access to proxies that are not covered by name also).
On top of that, each category can be individually tailored or expanded under its respective configuration area on the left side menu.
URL access category could be edited only there
We strongly recommend this setting for all educational domains.
How? Simply follow the following steps:
Navigate to GAT Shield – Configuration settings.
2. Click on CIPA Compliance tap on top.
3. On this page, click on the checkmark to Enable CIPA compliant features.
4. Select the Scope to the users you want to apply the rule for.
5. Click on Save.
The CIPA compliant features will be enabled.
If you would like to run a trial of our products please install GAT+ from the Google Workspace Marketplace and contact us at support@generalaudittool.com with any questions you may have.
To request a demo please click here and fill the form, we will get back to you in less than 12 hours during weekdays.
If you tried GAT in the past and you would like to run a fresh trial again, please enquire through this form.
Want to know more?
Contact GAT Labs today for a free trial or a live demonstration of all our products’ features.
It has never been easier to do more, see more and protect more, wherever your Google Workspace and Chrome users are in the world.
