At a Glance
- Google‘s newly released internal documents expose a strategy to turn students into lifelong customers while acknowledging YouTube’s risks.
- Documents show how Chromebooks, learning platforms, and YouTube build a pipeline of future users.
- The files were filed in a lawsuit that pits Google and other tech giants against families, districts, and state attorneys general.
Google’s newly released internal documents expose a long-term customer-acquisition strategy that targets students, even as the company admits that its flagship platform, YouTube, can be unsafe for young viewers. The files were filed as part of a lawsuit that includes Meta, ByteDance, Snap, and Google, and they shed new light on how the tech giant markets to teachers and school administrators.
Internal Documents Reveal a Lifelong Customer Strategy
A 2018 presentation included a slide that said the public sees YouTube as problematic for students because there is “No way to block unsafe content, comments, ads,” a challenge that the company had yet to solve. In a 2024 update, survey respondents blamed YouTube for keeping them awake at night and for other negative effects on well-being.
An undated slide deck imagined a world where parents ask their children “Why aren’t you watching more YouTube?” and where school administrators shift budgets from textbooks to YouTube subscriptions. A November 2020 slide said acclimating children to Google’s ecosystem in school would hopefully lead them to use its products as adults: “You get that loyalty early, and potentially for life.”
YouTube’s Risks Acknowledged
The company also acknowledges that YouTube can be unsafe and distracting. The 2018 slide noted the lack of a way to block unsafe content, and a 2024 slide said respondents blamed YouTube for keeping them awake at night. In a March 2025 deposition, Kathryn Kurtz, global head of youth and learning at YouTube, said that teachers want to embed YouTube videos even if schools block access, and that the company has not measured its impact on student learning.
Legal Backdrop: Lawsuit and Settlement
The internal Google records were filed by plaintiffs Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as part of a lawsuit in which families, school districts and state attorneys general are suing Meta, ByteDance, Snap and Google, claiming that the corporations purposely marketed addictive and damaging social media to children. Snap settled its portion of the suit this week on undisclosed terms, while the other companies move closer to trial over questions of whether they were obligated to warn schools of their platforms’ negative effects or to implement more restrictions for young users. A judge chose six districts last year to proceed to trial first; a Kentucky district will be the first to go to trial in June.
Google’s Response
Google did not answer questions from News Of Philadelphia about the purpose and audience of the internal documents that were included in court filings. Jack Malon, a Google spokesperson, said in an email that the “documents mischaracterize our work.” Malon added that while the company does not directly market YouTube to schools, “we have responded to meet the strong demand from educators for high-quality, curriculum-aligned content. Administrators maintain full control over platform usage and schools must obtain parental consent before granting access to students under 18.”
Industry and Advocacy Reactions
Education experts and parent advocates who are concerned about schools overusing devices for instruction said the documents shed new light on the business motivations behind one of the biggest technology companies marketing its products to teachers and school administrators. Jared Cooney Horvath, a cognitive neuroscientist and education consultant who recently wrote a book criticizing technology in schools, said, “It just proves the kind of fear that we’ve all had. These companies speak about learning, but to them, learning is just the cover they’re using for these practices of ‘How do we get customers now’ and ‘How do we keep them for life.'”
Sarah Gardner, CEO of Heat Initiative, a parent activist group critical of social media platforms, said the documents confirm that there are ulterior motives to companies pushing technology into classrooms. “These documents confirm that suspicion that there are ulterior motives to companies pushing technology into classrooms,” she said. “And so we need to be asking why we’re letting them do that.”
Stacy Hawthorne, board chair of the Consortium for School Networking, said that some are conflating social media, which can cause problems for children, with technology more broadly, which can help students learn. “There’s a big chasm between ‘Social media is bad for kids’ and ‘We need to pull computers out of schools,'” she said.
Justin Reich, an associate professor of digital media at MIT, said YouTube is caught between tailoring its product to schools and appealing to a vast global audience. “There’s no capitalist way to win by making your product less engaging,” he said.
Historical Context of Google in Schools
Google’s presence in schools has grown steadily since the launch of the Chromebook in 2011. A table below shows key milestones and usage statistics.
| Year | Milestone | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | Schools bought Apple desktops | – |
| 2000s | Windows became dominant | – |
| 2011 | Chromebook debuted | – |
| 2017 | Google said more than half of all American public-school children use Google applications for classwork | – |
| 2021 | Over 170 million students and teachers worldwide use Google applications | – |
| 2024 | Schools account for 80% of all Chromebook purchases | – |
Key Takeaways
- Google’s internal documents reveal a deliberate strategy to build a lifelong customer base starting in schools.
- The company acknowledges YouTube’s safety and distraction issues while still pushing the platform into classrooms.
- The lawsuit pits Google and other tech giants against families, districts, and state attorneys general over the marketing of addictive social media to children.
- Google maintains that it does not market YouTube to schools and that administrators control usage with parental consent.
Do you have a story to share about technology in education? Contact reporter Sarah L. Montgomery.
