Why Don’t Schools Have Ad-Blockers?

I worked as a substitute teacher’s assistant last year, and almost every time I saw a school computer load an educational game, video, or article, it also loaded a targeted ad. And, it was not only media-literate High School students using these school computers. Computers were being used throughout the grade levels.

For example, Jack Hartman’s Music for Kids YouTube channel is often used in primary classes as a fun, active way to teach kids how to count, spell, and read. His “Let’s Get Fit — Sing to 100” video is a particular favorite with over 43 million views. Educational videos like Jack’s have provided huge value to schools; unfortunately, they are usually accompanied by targeted ads.

Some may argue that these ads are a fair trade-off for the benefits of the educational content. However, because of free software like Ad-Blocker Plus, which blocks ads across the web and on YouTube, it does not need to be a trade-off. The technology exists to keep ads out of school, but, for an assortment of reasons, this technology is not used in most schools.

The reasons schools avoid ad-blocking technologies range from lack of resources to ignorance, to conflicts between ad-blocking extensions and other software. Many schools still use Internet Explorer for the same reasons. In other words, many schools need to upgrade their I.T applications and empower and train their I.T teams.

However, as school I.T teams are unlikely to change quickly on scale, the solution to getting advertisements out of schools may need to come from outside schools. Policymakers could effectively ban ads from schools, but since this is a global issue, and policies are localized, this strategy would also be slow-moving.

Alternatively, the solution could come from the private sector. Companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft are the major producers of school tech and they could build ad-blocking software into their computers and tablets. Unfortunately, these companies earn money from advertisements and, as a result, are unlikely to invest in software development that will damage their earnings.

In conclusion, if you want to help, please do so by sharing this article, by thinking of your own solutions, and by lobbying your local school districts, politicians, and tech CEOs.

Bill Gates — info@gatesfoundation.org

Tim Cook — tcook@apple.com

Sergey Brin — sergey@google.com

Larry Paige — larry@google.com

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