Understand Filtering Policies

A policy is a collection of web filtering rules that you apply to groups of users through organizational units (OUs). Policies are the main unit of control in GoGuardian Admin. Each policy contains four sections:

• A Website URLs section that filters websites and URLs directly.
• A Website Categories section that filters websites by category.
• A YouTube content filter.
• A Chrome Apps & Extensions filter.

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Assign Policies to Organizational Units

You apply a policy by assigning it to an organizational unit on the Filtering → Policies page. A policy applied to a parent OU is automatically inherited by all of its sub-OUs.

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Review Permission Requirements

Applying or editing a policy requires Filter & Monitor or Full Access permissions in GoGuardian Admin. Users with Monitor Only can view which policies are assigned and their contents, but cannot edit or assign them.

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Understand Policy Inheritance

When a policy is applied to an OU, all of its sub-OUs inherit the policy. For example, a policy assigned to the top (domain) level OU filters every user in your organization. Policy inheritance cannot be disabled, but you can overwrite inherited rules by adding specific allow or block rules to the Website URLs section of a locally applied (Assigned) policy. When rules conflict, Assigned policies take precedence over inherited policies. Example: if an inherited default policy allows amazon.com, but a policy assigned to the “5th grade” OU blocks the E-commerce category, amazon.com is blocked for users in the 5th grade OU despite the inherited allow rule. GoGuardian recommends stacking as few policies as possible — ideally no more than two. In a typical structure:

• Policy A is applied at the root/domain level with baseline rules appropriate for all students.
• Policy B is applied at the High School OU; freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors all inherit it.
• Policy C is applied to the Freshman OU; only students in that OU receive its rules.

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Review Policy Precedence and Priority

When multiple policies are inherited from different levels, they effectively merge and have equal priority, and a locally Assigned policy takes precedence over them: Policy A = Policy B < Policy C For example, if the Freshman OU has Policy A and Policy B inherited from its parent OUs (“High School” and “District.org”) plus an Assigned Policy C, then when rules conflict, Policy C takes precedence because it is the Assigned policy. In the product, Assigned and Inherited policies are labeled so you can distinguish them.

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Understand Restrictive Mode

Enabling Restrictive Mode in a policy blocks all websites and URLs except those explicitly allowed in the Website URLs section. If an Assigned policy has Restrictive Mode enabled, its priority is reduced to equal that of an inherited policy. Websites explicitly allowed in any other inherited policy remain allowed for that OU even if the Assigned policy has a conflicting block rule.

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Import and Export Policy CSVs

Export a CSV. Export any policy to a CSV with the Export as CSV option on a policy page. The export contains all blocked and allowed Website URL rules in the policy, but does not include Website Category, YouTube, or Apps & Extensions settings. Import a CSV. Upload a CSV to any policy to bulk-add blocked and allowed Website URL rules and YouTube videos. Click the kebab (three-dot) menu on the right side of the policy and choose Import URLs or Videos. Follow the CSV import requirements for blocked and allowed sites when preparing your file.

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Resources