Keyboarding Instruction · Grades 3+

Typing.com

Web-based keyboarding instruction with a "Warning" rating from Common Sense Media

Owned by: Typing.com LLC (private, for-profit)  ·  Ad-supported free tier used in most schools

Warning
Common Sense Media privacy rating
96%
of school apps that share data with 3rd parties
Grades 3+
Typical deployment age
Free*
*Ad-supported — children see ads

Typing.com is a web-based keyboarding instruction platform widely used in K–12 schools. It offers typing lessons, games, and tests. The free version — the one most schools deploy — is ad-supported, meaning children receive behavioral advertising during school hours. Common Sense Media, the leading independent children's privacy reviewer, awarded Typing.com a "Warning" rating — its most serious concern level — for using data to create profiles not associated with educational purposes and potential data sale to third parties. Typing is a legitimate skill, but the question for LMSD is whether the free, ad-supported version of this platform is the appropriate way to teach it — and whether keyboarding is displacing handwriting during the years it matters most.

The Full Picture

The Good

  • Keyboarding proficiency is a legitimate and necessary skill — children do need to type fluently for standardized testing and beyond
  • Self-paced format works reasonably well for keyboarding, which is largely a motor memory task that benefits from repeated independent practice
  • Progress tracking (WPM and accuracy) gives teachers and students clear, measurable milestones
  • Free version lowers the barrier to access for under-resourced schools
  • Covers digital citizenship curriculum as a secondary module

The Bad

  • Keyboarding instruction in early elementary school (K–2) is developmentally premature — children's hands are still growing, and fine motor skills are better developed through handwriting, drawing, and physical manipulation
  • Research consistently shows handwriting instruction produces stronger letter recognition, spelling retention, and reading development than typing — particularly in early grades (ScienceDaily, April 2025)
  • Time spent on Typing.com is time not spent on handwriting, which is directly linked to fine motor development and cognitive encoding of letters and words
  • Gamified typing games prioritize speed over accuracy and reinforce "fast is good" rather than careful, thoughtful composition
  • Accelerates the "typing as default" mental model before students have developed the handwriting foundation that research shows supports writing quality

The Worse

  • Common Sense Media's "Warning" rating — its most serious concern level — cites data profile creation not associated with educational purposes and potential data sale
  • The free version displays behavioral advertisements to children during school hours — LMSD may be inadvertently consenting to advertising exposure for students without explicit parental notification
  • Typing.com's privacy policy confirms aggregated and individual data is shared with advertising third parties in the free tier
  • A 2022 Internet Safety Labs study found 96% of school apps share student data with third parties, with 78% of that data going to advertising or analytics entities — Typing.com is among the cited examples
  • Schools that deploy the free version without upgrading to the paid tier are exchanging student behavioral data for a free platform — and most parents don't know it

Privacy & Data

Owner

Typing.com LLC (private, for-profit)

Data collected

PII (name, email), typing performance, time-on-task; in free tier: data shared with advertising third parties

Common Sense Media rating

"Warning" — for advertising profiling and potential data sale. See privacy.commonsense.org.

Regulatory actions

No FTC fines on record. However, the Warning rating indicates practices that fall short of student privacy standards.

The free version of Typing.com, which most schools use, delivers behavioral advertising to students and shares data with third parties. If LMSD is using the free tier, parents have the right to ask whether this constitutes consent to advertising for their child, and whether the district has a paid contract that removes ads and restricts data use. Read Common Sense Media's full Warning report.

What Typing.com Replaces

Typing.com keyboarding sessions
replaces ↓
Handwriting practice, which builds fine motor skills and encodes letters more deeply in long-term memory
Speed-typing games
replaces ↓
Deliberate writing practice — drafting, revising, and composing — where quality matters more than speed
Digital citizenship modules
replaces ↓
Direct teacher discussion of responsible technology use with real examples
WPM tracking
replaces ↓
Writing quality assessment — fluency with ideas, not keystrokes per minute

Questions for LMSD

Is LMSD using the free, ad-supported version of Typing.com? If so, have parents been informed that their children receive behavioral advertising during school hours on this platform?
Has LMSD reviewed Typing.com's "Warning" rating from Common Sense Media and assessed whether the platform meets the district's student privacy standards?
At what grade level does LMSD begin formal keyboarding instruction, and has this been evaluated against research showing handwriting instruction produces stronger literacy outcomes in grades K–3?
How many minutes per week are students spending on Typing.com, and how does that time trade off against handwriting instruction time?

Sources & Further Reading

  • Common Sense Media Privacy Report for Typing.com. privacy.commonsense.org
  • Internet Safety Labs (2022). "96% of School Apps Send Student Data to Third Parties." internetsafetylabs.org
  • "Children's reading and writing develop better when trained in handwriting." ScienceDaily (April 2025). sciencedaily.com
  • Berninger, V. et al. (2009). "Writing and reading: Connections between language by hand and language by eye." Journal of Learning Disabilities.

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