A few years ago, Erin Dyal reviewed a list of websites her son visited on his Fairfax County school-issued device.
She flipped her phone horizontally to see the entire URLs, and noticed one had the phrase 鈥渉istory tutor.鈥� Initially, she was confused. History was her son鈥檚 best subject, so it didn鈥檛 seem clear why he may need extra help.
Then, Dyal visited the website herself. She realized it wasn鈥檛 a history assistance tool. It was a gaming site.
Dyal is part of the parent-led group FCPS Parents for Intentional Technology, which has been advocating for stricter rules on screen time during the school day and urging division leaders to reconsider the one-to-one student device policy.
Part of the advocacy is raising awareness about inappropriate games and websites students are still accessing.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no way that they鈥檙e going to keep up with blocking these games,鈥� Dyal said. 鈥淏ut at a minimum, they need to block peer-to-peer sharing. They need to plug the holes on all of these other leaks. And if students continue to get around them, then maybe that student just isn鈥檛 ready for a computer.鈥�
Inside a shared Google Drive, Dyal said students seem to have access to games, pirated movies and entire seasons of shows. They may be logging into their own Gmail accounts and circumventing restrictions, she said, or they may also be accessing proxies.
Through all of that, several parents have observed students playing a game called 鈥淔ive Nights at Epstein鈥檚.鈥� The game tasks users with trying to escape from financier and sex offender Jeffery Epstein鈥檚 private island.
鈥淚t鈥檚 alarming to hear that the kids are accessing that, and finding ways to work around the restrictions that we have set in our county,鈥� Megan Durst, another parent, said.
Other games are gambling-related, Michelle Dirst, another member of the parents’ group, told 草莓传媒.
What’s being done about content moderation
In a statement, a Fairfax County schools spokeswoman said the division uses a multilayered approach to prevent inappropriate access to content rather than depending on a single filter or blocklist.
鈥淭hat includes , classroom monitoring tools, parent visibility tools, vendor escalation, cybersecurity monitoring, and school-based intervention,鈥� the district said. 鈥淔CPS monitors new proxy site usage daily and is investing in additional resources to improve the speed of proxy blocking, with recent blocks being implemented substantially faster.
Asked specifically about student access to the game 鈥淔ive Nights at Epstein鈥檚,鈥� a Montgomery County schools spokeswoman said the game has been flagged and the division is blocking it.
It鈥檚 also blocked in Prince William County schools, a spokeswoman told 草莓传媒.
Loudoun County鈥檚 Department of Digital Innovation is aware of the game, and a spokesman said the district 鈥渉as taken steps to ensure students cannot access it on their school issued devices. DDI is extremely vigilant and always on the lookout for sites, code and other inappropriate material that needs to be blocked from our devices and network.鈥�
In Fairfax, Dyal said teachers are faced with challenges in their classrooms, because they didn鈥檛 sign up 鈥渢o be laptop police.鈥�
“But the gaming, there鈥檚 no reason why students should be playing games in class and people not shutting that down,鈥� Dyal said.
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