We’ve heard from several schools and districts who are concerned about Meta’s upcoming changes and about AI models learning from public website content. Here is what you should know.
Yes, we can block Meta’s crawlers.
Every Edlio website already has a robots.txt file, which tells automated crawlers what they may and may not visit. We can add rules to it that tell Meta’s crawlers, and those of other AI companies,, not to collect your site’s content. Contact Support and we’ll add them for you.
What this does.
The block applies to content collected from now on. Content that was already collected may have been used to train models. It also doesn’t change what your school or district posts on its own Facebook or Instagram pages.
Your website is already public.
It contains what you’ve chosen to publish for your community: news, calendars, staff contacts and school information. Personal information about students and families is kept behind logins and is not available to crawlers. Unless a school has added personal information to a public page itself, nothing personal is exposed.
Why many schools choose not to worry about it.
Your families and community are increasingly likely to ask an AI assistant about your school or district. If your public website is a source those tools can use, they are more likely to give accurate information, such as your calendar, policies and contact details. If not, they may fall back on older, incomplete or unflattering information from elsewhere. Keeping your website current is the best way to make sure those answers are right.
What to do next.
If you’d like us to block Meta’s crawlers, open a ticket and we’ll add the rule. We can also remove it later.