Knox County Schools is launching a new app to monitor students’ online activity

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – It’s been over a month since then dozens of school threats put several schools in East Tennessee on lockdown, leading to arrests throughout the region.

While Knox County leaders told parents to have conversations with their children to prevent further threats, they were also working on a way to continue to be proactive.

The Qustodio app launched Friday for Knox County schools, which is an app parents can use to monitor their children’s online activity outside of school hours.

“Parents are used to having tools for a device they own, but it’s a little more complicated when it’s a school device managed by, say, Google,” said Freddie Cox, KCS’s Chief Technology Officer.

This app is meant to help parents know how much time their child is using on school-issued tablets and can also give families an idea of what they are being used after school.

Through Qustodio, you can see how many minutes and hours a student is using their tablet for homework and academic websites, taking into account any other non-school related searches.

“It opens up that dialogue between the student and the parent. The parent and the school. For everyone to be aware of the things our kids are doing and learning while they’re at home,” Cox said.

The app also gives parents the ability to turn off the internet connection on tablets after school hours, which gives families the option of how long a student should have a screen time.

For more information and a link to register for the app, you can click this link.