Blocking Search Keywords in School Manager

Sometimes seemingly harmless keywords can lead to inappropriate search results or become a distraction for students, prompting reports from teaching staff. Using School Manager to block specific search keywords can be an effective solution in such cases. Blocking keywords can prevent students from accessing undesirable content using search engines. This can include instances where students search for unblocked games, free movies, and TV shows or attempt to bypass operating system or system administration restrictions. Any changes you make will be reflected in your Search Reports.

Step 1: Set up a blocked keywords pool

You can add blocked keywords one by one using the Add Entry dialog or import a CSV file containing the blocked keywords.

Add Entry

1. Go to Configuration > Objects > Pools and select Add Pool.
2. Give the new Object Pool a Pool Name and an optional Pool Description.
3. On the Type dropdown list, select Search Keywords.
4. Save the new pool.
5. On the new pool page, select Add Entry. The Add Entry dialog will appear.
6. Enter the blocked keyword/s in the Entry. 
7. Type a Name.
8. (Optional) Add a description for the blocked keyword Entry.
9. Select Save.

Import CSV

1. Select Import CSV.
2. Select the CSV file containing the blocked keywords on your computer or shared folder. The accepted format is one entry per line, and keywords are not case-sensitive.

Step 2: Set up a blocked keywords filtering policy

1. Go to Filtering > Content Filtering and select Create Policy. The Editing Policy dialog will appear.
2. Give the new filtering policy a name.
3. On the Type dropdown list, select the blocked keyword pool that you have just created.
4. On the Action dropdown, select Block. 
5. Select the appropriate options for Criteria, Redirect, Blocked Page, Alert, Quarantine, and Locked Policy. See: Creating Content Filtering Policies.
6. Select Save.

Step 3: Enable the blocked keywords policy

1. Go to Filtering > Content Filtering, and toggle Enabled for the new Blocked Keywords filtering policy.
2. Ensure the policy is placed above any policies allowing related search keywords. See Content Filtering Policy Ordering.