How best to block YouTube on laptop used for school?

[Anonymous]

My adhd son is a freshman and can’t focus on homework because he’s constantly distracted by YouTube Shorts on his laptop. What’s the best way to block it on his laptop.m? He agreed he probably needs it. Homework is taking forever and I definitely think this is contributing.

Bark? Another similar tool? Chrome extension blocker?

He’ll keep it on his phone which he can plug in somewhere else and walk away from. And we have time limits

[Anonymous]

You and your spouse need to parent this son.
Lay down the rules .. He’s old enough to understand that.

Otherwise, go have him evaluated for a YT addiction.

[Anonymous]

A school laptop: impossible.

A personal laptop: Qustodio or similar tool but kids can get around everything if they want to.

Can you require homework be done in a common area of the house (kitchen, living room) where you can see his screen? If he's alone in a bedroom it's going to be hard to fight that temptation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You and your spouse need to parent this son.
Lay down the rules .. He’s old enough to understand that.

Otherwise, go have him evaluated for a YT addiction.

Okay, real helpful. You obviously know nothing about ADHD and the addictive quality of YouTube, but thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A school laptop: impossible.

A personal laptop: Qustodio or similar tool but kids can get around everything if they want to.

Can you require homework be done in a common area of the house (kitchen, living room) where you can see his screen? If he's alone in a bedroom it's going to be hard to fight that temptation.

It is a personal laptop. He usually does it at the dining room table. I think the issue is that it is like little pieces of — going over for and watching a few. I’m questioning now if he’s ever really focused on what he’s doing he’s kind of flipping back-and-forth all the time we’re having a lot of homework battles overall so we can check in on him, but he absolutely does not want us to sit with him so if I catch it, obviously I call him on it, but I think it’s happening a lot when we’re not there

[Anonymous]

I never found a way to block YouTube. I tried so many things. This new educational method is awful and did not work for my daughter. I’m so sorry. You’ll have to supervise and muddle through. It’s terrible.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what the “few pieces” was—meant to say short bits of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never found a way to block YouTube. I tried so many things. This new educational method is awful and did not work for my daughter. I’m so sorry. You’ll have to supervise and muddle through. It’s terrible.

Ugh!! Sorry to hear this!

[Anonymous]

It's terrible and we should move away from chrimebooks etc for homework for this reason. Kids attention spans are shot and they can't learn. I have no YT blocking solutions.
Maybe there is a way to block the site in the browser?

[Anonymous]

One partial workaround is to turn WiFi off. If he is using Google docs to type something, he will be able to type but will need to turn WiFi back on to save his work.

[Anonymous]

You have to control it at the router / modem. Look for info on your device's management tools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to control it at the router / modem. Look for info on your device's management tools.

Yeah try this I think you can block it just for certain hours

[Anonymous]

I posted previously that I had no luck. To be clear, I could block it on her personal laptop let her school laptop had settings that prevented me from doing so. I tried at the router, I tried installing some kind of software, I tried everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A school laptop: impossible.

A personal laptop: Qustodio or similar tool but kids can get around everything if they want to.

Can you require homework be done in a common area of the house (kitchen, living room) where you can see his screen? If he's alone in a bedroom it's going to be hard to fight that temptation.

yes, we body double our 14 year old freshmen. It sucks for us. And long-term he isn't learning self control (he is externalizing his self control to us). But for now it gets him through his homework. As his brain matures, we hope to wean him off the need of us sitting beside him being his super ego.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted previously that I had no luck. To be clear, I could block it on her personal laptop let her school laptop had settings that prevented me from doing so. I tried at the router, I tried installing some kind of software, I tried everything.

You should absolutely be able to block it via your router. We’ve had the same problem with our kids using YouTube on school computers. If you can’t figure it out call the help line for your router.