My son is watching excessive amounts of YouTube videos on his Chromebook that he needs for his online classes while schools are physically closed during the pandemic. I would like to be able to block that domain, but just on his Chromebook. Is that possible?
My son's Chromebook is running version 81.0.4044.103. I see under Settings -> Device:
Your Chromebook is managed by xxxxxxxusd.org
And if I click on the Chromebook is managed link, I go to chrome://management where I see a list of four extensions installed:
- Blocksi Enterprise Edition
- WAVE Evaluation Tool
- Hapara Highlights Extension
- Lightspeed User Agent
I don't know if these are pertinent to my question, but I thought I'd list them just in case they are.
I read a bit on Google's Family Link, but it appears that would only work with a child's Google account setup to work with Family Link and not with his school account.
I have an Eero mesh system, but looking at their documentation I don't see any way to use their software to block specific domains from specific devices.
I'm technically capable, so I'm open to solutions involving setting up (for example) a Raspberry Pi as a DNS server. All suggestions are welcome.
21 Answer
You can either
Block it locally on the Chromebook using the hosts file, if you have access and permission to modify that file.
Block it on your DNS server if you have one at home. You can also consider building one using a Raspberry Pi. Pihole is a popular one. It will block malicious domains and most ADs online. As well it will block any domain you specify.
Block it on a hosted DNS server in the cloud. For instance you can deploy an Ubuntu VM on Digital Ocean for $5 per month. Install BIND on it and create youtube.com is an empty domain. Finally update your router dhcp settings to point to you DigitalOcean VM IP address.
Outside of DNS solutions, you can try chrome extensions that might block certain websites. Or extensions that allow only a certain amount of time (20 min per day)
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