Exploitation Instead Of Education
Why is Google Chromebook on the 2026 Dirty Dozen List?
Schools started giving out Chromebooks for education, but too often they result in exploitation. From exposing kids to pornography or to predators on dangerous platforms, to failing parents with clunky, ineffective safety tools, Google’s educational devices are a liability for kids, parents, and schools. Profit-driven design has trumped protection for too long. Google must stop shirking responsibility and make child safety the default.
Google Chromebooks have achieved market dominance in schools. But they are riddled with serious flaws that jeopardize the safety and well-being of K–12 students.
The Problem
Samantha (pseudonym) was just 10 years old when her school-issued Google Chromebook changed her life.
Like so many students, Samantha was handed the device with the promise of learning in a safe environment. But what she received instead was exposure to a dark and dangerous side of the internet. Through the Chromebook, she accessed Discord, a platform that should have been out of reach for a child her age. It was there that she was targeted by a predator who sent her explicit and abusive messages, detailing ways this person planned to sexually assault her and even kidnap her.
Samantha’s father discovered this abuse when helping her with homework, and he was horrified. Her parents, desperate to protect her, found themselves blocked by administrative restrictions, unable to manage the settings on her school-issued device.
The very tool meant to empower her education instead facilitated her victimization.
Background:
Google has been embedding itself in schools for years, promising “education for today and beyond.” And a core element of this business strategy has been to get their lightweight cloud-based laptops, Google Chromebooks, into the hands of students.
And it’s worked. According to 2025 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “About 9 in 10 public schools (88 percent) have a 1-to-1 computing program that provides every student a school-issued device, such as a laptop or tablet for the 2024–25 school year.” And a 2025 data summary asserts that 93% of U.S. school districts “intend to purchase Chromebooks” specifically.
Google Chromebooks have achieved market dominance in schools. But they are riddled with serious flaws that jeopardize the safety and well-being of K–12 students.
At the heart of the issue is the Google Chromebook default settings, which have been reported to recklessly grant students essentially open access to almost the entire internet, exposing them to harmful content like pornography, violence, sextortion, and cyberbullying. And some have claimed that Google’s search algorithms, designed to prioritize maximally “engaging” content, actively push dangerous material to minors, amplifying the risks.
These are glaring failures to prioritize child safety for devices intentionally marketed and given to children.
Further, while Chromebooks open the door to online harms, they also fail to provide schools and parents with the necessary warnings or the tools to appropriately manage these risks. The Admin Console, which is supposed to help configure safety settings, is not user friendly and requires constant upkeep and attention. A lawsuit on behalf of a minor who was abused via her Chromebook states:
Google provides tools that, if used, can make its Products somewhat less dangerous, but schools must pay extra for them. And settings within its Admin Console may be reconfigured to make the Products less dangerous, but they are overwhelming: potentially numbering over a thousand, they are ever-changing and difficult to navigate. Thus, Google’s Products are designed in a manner that is dangerous and difficult to reconfigure. They could and should be made safe out of the box. [emphasis added.]
The same lawsuit goes on to state: “Google forces onto schools and parents the responsibility of making its Products less dangerous for students, and onto students the responsibility of not getting hurt while using them.”
Even when fully implemented, these tools fail to address the inherent dangers of unrestricted internet access, leaving students exposed to harmful content and predatory behavior.
This issue hits especially close to home for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Back in 2021, Google Chromebooks earned a spot on our Dirty Dozen List because of their default settings. At the time, Google promised to do better, announcing changes to default safety settings and pledging to prioritize child safety. But those promises have fallen heartbreakingly short. The devastating story of Samantha, exploited through her school-issued Chromebook in 2023, is proof that Google has not kept its word.
Despite being warned about these dangers years ago, Google continues to design Chromebooks that allow open internet access, promote harmful content, and leave parents and schools helpless to shield their children.
Proof: Evidence of Exploitation
WARNING: Any pornographic images have been blurred, but are still suggestive. There may also be graphic text descriptions shown in these sections. POSSIBLE TRIGGER.
2025 Stories of Exposure to Pornography, Violent Video Games, and Loopholes for Communication
In 2025 alone, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has heard from and seen parents speaking out about their children being exposed to graphic sexual content, violent video games, and risky features that could facilitate grooming via Chromebooks from schools.
This includes parents sharing how their child easily bypassed the school-given Chromebook filters in order to access online pornography. Another parent shared their child also accessed pornography multiple times on their school-given Chromebook, and when the parent asked for teachers to instead give their student paper and pencil assignments so their child wouldn’t need to use the laptop anymore, the teachers refused. Another shared how their child not only viewed pornography on a school-given Chromebook but accessed it in class at the school.
Others have spoken out about violent first-person shooting video games being accessed on Chromebooks, and several parents have talked about how Google Slides on school-given Chromebooks are often used as loopholes to communicate and chat with others.
These are current issues that parents are reporting as recently as November 2025 at the time of writing. Clearly, any default settings that Chromebook currently employs are not robust enough to prevent these issues.
*Screenshots for verification are available to journalists or policymakers upon request. Direct quotes and screenshots are not being shared out of respect for the privacy of the parents.*
LAWSUIT: 10-Year Old Harmed + Invasive Data Collection and Security Vulnerabilities on Chromebooks
Samantha’s (pseudonym) story shared at the top of this webpage is a chilling example of how Google’s Chromebooks, marketed as tools for education, have instead become gateways to harm. In another example, at just 10 years old, Z.G. was handed a school-issued Chromebook. Through the Chromebook, she accessed Discord, a platform where she was targeted by an online predator who sent her explicit and abusive messages.
A lawsuit is currently launched on her behalf.
This horrifying incident underscores the lawsuit’s central claim: Google’s Chromebooks are “defectively designed” because they grant students “virtually unrestricted access to the internet,” leaving them vulnerable to harmful content and predatory behavior.
The lawsuit argues that Google has shifted the burden of safety onto parents and schools, forcing them to navigate complex, ever-changing administration systems while leaving children like Samantha exposed to harm.
Further, the lawsuit alleges Google has invasive data collection practices.
It argues the company builds “intimate, dynamic behavioral and psychographic profiles” of students without parental consent, blatantly violating privacy laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Parents are left in the dark about the extent of this data harvesting, while Google profits from exploiting children’s personal information. The public complaint states, “the incentives created by Google’s data-monetization business model are directly adverse to child safety.”
The complaint also notes that security vulnerabilities in Chromebooks are another glaring issue. It states that students can easily bypass school-administered restrictions by logging out of their school accounts and using personal accounts without safety controls. This design flaw renders any safety measures schools attempt to implement virtually useless. Additionally, Chromebooks’ reliance on a persistent internet connection, due to their lack of robust offline capabilities, only increases students’ exposure to online risks.
14-Year Old Girl Targeted by Online Predators via Her School-Issued Chromebook
In Nova Scotia, a 14-year-old girl reportedly became the target of online predators through her school-issued Chromebook. Her mother discovered explicit emails and chats on the laptop, including messages from individuals outside the school system. These communications, accessed both at home and during school hours, were deeply troubling, involving sexual content and coercion. The mother shared she discovered: “Things that were very sexual in nature, self-harm related; some conversations with individuals who were not within the school system that were happening over her school-issued email address.”
The mother, noticing signs of self-harm on her daughter, took the Chromebook to the RCMP, where the Internet Child Exploitation Unit launched an investigation.
The school later admitted that students had found ways to bypass restrictions on Chromebooks, accessing platforms like Roblox, which predators used to connect with the girl. Despite claims of “robust” safeguards, the school’s reliance on network-specific protections left students vulnerable once devices were taken home.
This is why any school-given device must be locked down with safety mechanisms at the device level—it is not sufficient for Google to put the onus on schools’ internet or IT systems alone.
The mother, who had already restricted her daughter’s online access due to her severe ADHD, expressed heartbreak, saying, “I had no idea that there was somebody kind of grooming and convincing her to do these things.”
This case highlights the systemic failures of Chromebooks in protecting children from online exploitation. While schools and districts tout safety measures, these safeguards often fail to address the real-world risks of unrestricted internet access and inadequate monitoring.
REPORT: Nearly Half of Teens Who Viewed Porn During the School Day Saw it on School-Issued Devices
In 2022, Commonsense Media released a demographically representative national survey of more than 1,300 teens regarding their experiences with online pornography. Among other findings, it stated:
Many of these respondents (41%) reported having seen pornography during the school day, including roughly one in three (31%) who said they had viewed pornography while attending school in person. Furthermore, among teens who reported that they have viewed pornography during the school day, nearly half (44%) reported having viewed pornography on school-owned devices.
… over two in five (44%) respondents who had seen pornography during the school day said they had seen it on a school-issued device, representing 13% of all teen respondents. Notably, reported exposure on school-issued devices was highest among 13- to 14-year-old teens.
Chromebook’s Long History of Safety Problems
Stories Submitted to, or viewed by, NCOSE staff prior to 2022 – showing the longstanding history of safety concerns with Chromebooks. Many of the same themes continue to this day.
- A family reached out to NCOSE sharing their tragic story of their 9-year-old-girl who started to change a few months after receiving a Chromebook from school. She became withdrawn, depressed, unmotivated, and angry. The family thought it was maybe just a phase—until one night the mother opened her daughter’s bedroom door in the middle of the night to find her watching hardcore pornography on her school device. For months, this little 9-year-old girl had been watching pornography for hours most nights; her family had no idea. The secret behavior broke this innocent girl down. She reported to her parents through tears just how horrific the content she had seen was and how she felt she couldn’t stop herself.
- The family of a young boy reached out to NCOSE when their son was groomed and exploited on his school-issued Chromebook, which allowed him to access social media and private browsing.
- A mother from California: “My children have been homeschooled through a charter school. We’ve received Chromebooks through that institution for educational purposes for years. Many schools have increasingly been handing out Chromebooks to students for years. In the wake of this 2020 pandemic, every school aged child has a chrome book in their hand. Are schools providing protections and monitoring on these devices? In our experience- no. I had assumed since they came from the school, their IT dept was monitoring the use, that protections had been built in to these windows into the World Wide Web. No. There was nothing to protect my children there. In fact, chromebooks have a little something called an Incognito Window built right in, enticing anyone to explore without any one ever knowing where they had been. You know the dangers. You are aware of the possibilities. Now imagine for a moment. Millions of isolated, lonely school children. Their parents have gone back to work, or are in their home offices, busy working their jobs from home. No one is paying attention. No one is moderating. And I know from experience: our children are being preyed upon. My own child was curious and found loopholes in our inadequate system of protections for her. She became addicted to porn, and started seeking out more connection. She was groomed by online predators: teaching her how to get a fake credit card to pay for sites, telling her what they wanted to see, and nearly abducting her. If this happened to my own child, who we love, who is homeschooled by me and we are actively involved in her life, then I can imagine this activity is rampant among the isolated, lonely children of America. What is being done to protect our kids? What is the school’s responsibility for putting these loaded weapons against our children right into into their hands? I have read your reports, and I know you’re aware. I have signed the petitions and sent letters to my senators. What else can we do to bring about change?”
- Message from grandmother in Bland County, VA: “Last year my grandson was caught by his mother using school Chromebook for pornography and games as well as communicating by email with adult women. During the 8 hours of a school day he was on these sites for 7 hours. How does this happen? He should be getting classroom education. Obviously not!! His mother addressed with the school and nothing was done. She then had to take chrome book away. This year out of the 2 days at school he is on the chrome book all day again. Where are the teachers and filters for these Chromebooks? They CAN filter so that kids cannot get to sites!! Bring back paper education. They are ruining our kids!!!! Now this is an addiction caused by school chrome books. It needs to be taken care of immediately!!!”
- IT Administrator subreddit: “Struggling with students bypassing firewall. We are using CipaFilter in my district. We have remote management set up and proxy set up to direct all traffic through the firewall. They are going to porn sites and all of it seems to be working. We don’t think they are using a VPN or proxy server as they are heavily managed Chromebooks and they are going directly to the porn sites URL and it seems to be working. But Cipa doesn’t show that traffic or the violations anywhere. Is there some security measure we are missing? When trying to access the sites in a controlled environment on my personal phones hotspot using the students account and machine. It is blocked as expected. Has anyone else had problems with students bypassing the filters? What are you doing to stop it?”
- Family from Virginia: “Our elementary school gave Chromebooks to K-5 graders and the 3-5th graders are able to take their Chromebooks home with them. The Principal assured us that the devices would be secure both at the school and if used elsewhere and that kids would not be able to access inappropriate websites. When my neighbor’s son brought his computer home, his mom and I looked over it. A simple search in Google Images with a pornographic term yielded lots of porn pictures. The device didn’t even have the built-in controls turned on. We asked the Principal about it and he said that must have been the only one with that problem as he was assured that the devices were secure off of school grounds. We then asked a few other parents to look at their kids’ devices and they found the same thing. They were completely unlocked and open to bringing up everything at least in Google Images. Our school is looking into the problem now. We are furious though!”
- Sara from Oklahoma: “My daughter’s teacher instructed her students to use their Chromebooks to look up YouTube videos about Latin American culture. The kids got into small groups and looked things up. My daughter’s group landed on videos with women dancing and in the middle of one of the videos, the dancers took off their clothes and were fully nude. After laughs, the teacher realized what they were looking at and turned it off. The teacher and the school never told any of the parents. We only know because my daughter and another student explained what happened to us. YouTube is not a safe environment for the classroom or for kids to be unsupervised. This teacher was completely untrained and claimed she had no idea such content was available on YouTube. They told us that they can’t block content within YouTube — that it is all or nothing. Why are we giving kids access to this stuff at school? Can’t we create a better learning environment??”
Requests for Improvement
Redesign Chromebooks with a safety-first approach, including robust, default and locked safety settings that limit internet access to vetted, educational, age-appropriate content.
End exploitative data collection by halting student data harvesting without parental consent and ensuring full transparency and parental control over collected data.
Implement hardware-level controls to block students from bypassing safety and school-administered restrictions.
Enable effective offline functionality to reduce reliance on constant internet access and limit exposure to online risks.
Simplify and improve administrative tools, making the Admin Console user-friendly with intuitive, standardized safety settings activated by default.
Fast Facts
In 2024, over 38 million students used Chromebooks in K-12 schools worldwide and 93% of U.S. school districts planned to purchase Chromebooks in 2025.
As of 2025, education accounts for 60.1% of the global Chromebook market share.
The Chromebook market reached $14.7 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $42.85 billion by 2034.
In 2022, a survey of 1,353 U.S. teens (ages 13-17) found 73% had seen pornography, with 41% among those who had been exposed reporting seeing pornography during the school day. Of teens who had seen pornography during the school day, nearly half (44%) reported having viewed pornography on school-owned devices.
Resources
The EdTech Law Center (ETLC) works to hold education technology companies legally accountable for the harm they inflict on students, families, and schools. If your child been harmed by their school-issued laptop or tablet, contact ETLC for a free case evaluation.
Protect Young Eyes: The Complete Guide to Chromebook Parental Controls
Defend Young Minds: Chromebook Safety Made Simple: 5 Essential Tips For A Safer School Year (2024)
Recommended Reading
Share!
Help educate others and demand change by sharing this on social media or via email!
Spread the word to hold Big Tech accountable. Use these free resources to post on social media or share via email. Your voice can create change!
