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Parents, the Chromebook or iPad your school just handed your child is not necessarily a neutral learning tool. In classrooms across North America, these school-issued devices have become direct pipelines to pornography, detailed instructions for manufacturing illicit drugs like fentanyl, and AI chatbots coaching kids on how to self-harm.

This isn’t happening at home, on personal phones, but during class time at school.

Not only that, but research from Internet Safety Labs found that 96% of classroom technology sells student data to third parties.

One AI tutor marketed to kids called SchoolGPT detailed a gram-by-gram recipe for fentanyl while claiming it was helping 31,000 other students. A reporter testing ChatGPT was told to “hail Satan” and then guided through the process of using a clean razor blade on her inner wrist and completing breathing exercises to calm her nerves.

Families working with the organization Protect Young Eyes have discovered elementary and middle school children accessing explicit content for months on supposedly “world-class” monitored school devices. The system flagged it, yet the school never told the parents.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has documented how the shift to phone-based childhood between 2010-2015 tracks almost perfectly with skyrocketing teen anxiety, depression, and self-harm — especially among girls. One-to-one device policies put multifunctional entertainment systems on every desk for six-plus hours a day, meanwhile national test scores dropped.

Sweden, once the global leader in digitizing classrooms, reversed course in 2023 after years of declining results. Its top research institute stated there is clear evidence digital tools impair, rather than enhance, learning.

Protect Young Eyes was founded by Chris McKenna in 2015 and has provided parents with the exact templates to use in their advocacy efforts.

Before any device enters your child’s backpack, they outline six questions to ask of school administrators:

1. What are the school’s current technology policies, and can you inspect them?
2. Exactly how much screen time will my child have each day, and which hardware and software will they use? The preference here is device carts that stay at school over take-home 1:1 devices.
3. Who evaluates apps, websites, and AI tools for privacy and safety? Most fail basic standards, and they advise against all AI interaction through Grade 5, with very limited interaction thereafter.
4. Do teachers receive training on how these platforms hijack developing brains?
5. What network-level filtering and human monitoring exist, and who actually reviews the alerts and notifies parents?
6. What real alternatives exist for families who refuse certain digital tools? Opt-out templates should be ready and usable.

In Ontario, Policy/Program Memorandum 128 already restricts social media on school networks and devices. Combined with new rules under the Enhancing Digital Security and Trust Act, that require written notice to parents of children under 16 before personal data is shared with third-party apps, some government oversight exists.

However, policy on paper means little without adults who actually enforce it.

For concerned parents, they can download Protect Young Eyes’ materials free of charge, band together with other parents, request a meeting with the principal and IT lead, and stay curious rather than combative.

After all, it’s not anti-technology to refuse to outsource your child’s safety and mental health to an industry that prioritizes engagement and data over kids’ well-being, safety and security. Especially given that many tech executives are choosing screen-free educations for their own children.

For now, these devices are already in the classroom. It’s up to parents to ask the right questions, demand meaningful safeguards, and make sure technology serves their children’s education — not the other way around.