One of the most useful features of Smart Alerts is the ability to block content that has triggered a Smart Alert.

Blocking content via Smart Alerts is a sneak peek into the future of contextually aware web filtering. Here’s a guide on how to set up Smart Alerts to block content.

1. In the Smart Alerts dashboard, click on the “Triggers” tab.
2. Click on the blue “Add New Trigger” button in the top right corner.
3. Select the category. 
4. Select the severity threshold for alerts to be triggered. We recommend starting with the lowest confidence level (Medium Confidence - at least 50% confidence). Click the “Add” button.
5. On the right side, there are options to select which Organizational Unit will be monitored by this trigger. Select the appropriate OU (some schools do not want to monitor staff OUs, so they would only select OUs with student accounts). Click the blue Add button to add the OUs to the trigger.
6. After an admin has added the appropriate category and OUs, move on to “Add an Action.” Select “Notify & Assign” to set up automated emails to admins at a particular school to be alerted to and review the Smart Alerts generated by this trigger, as well as a direct message to the student as a chrome notification, or to block the content, which is the purpose of this walkthrough. Select “Block Content.”
   NOTE: For more on the additional options other than Block Content, check our guide on creating triggers HERE
7. After selecting “Block Content,” admins can create a custom message that will appear when the Smart Alert has been triggered for users in the selected OUs that trigger. After entering a custom message (or the default sample text), click “Save & Close.” Users in the selected OUs will now have content blocked when the Smart Alert has been triggered.

Best Practices

For larger schools with older students, we recommend setting up a Trigger to send a warning message for a Medium Explicit Alert and to set up a separate Trigger to Block/Assign for High Confidence Explicit Alerts. For younger students, some districts prefer to block even at the medium level. 

For more info on how to review a smart alert, click HERE.