Our school district uses Chromebooks, and they had a few hundred of them. When Covid hit, you could sign up for a *loaner,* to do distance learning. We are still on the distance learning protocol, but we didn't take the free loaner Chromebook. We had an old iMac and i3 laptop we were using, but a few years ago I bought a 13" Samsung Chromebook at the school fundraiser auction ($160 was the winning bid) and she likes it so that's what she prefers to use. My son, of course, has to have everything she has... so I promised I'd buy him one. A few months back, I did... the 15.6" newer Acer model ($60 used, but the shift key is sticky and apparently Chromebook keyboards lack the ability to pry up the keys to clean). For school, they're great. For everything else, not so much. But, they boot up in seconds and with the Google crap on it, I have pretty much full control over their online experience, so they're GREAT for young, curious, kids.
Our school district uses something that they call the SJUSD Portal, and if you configure your Chromebook to use the Portal as the primary login, it's pretty much no nonsense, no foolin' around when it comes to web safety. Mostly it's a variety of simultaneous Chrome OS extensions. Combine that with the Google Family mobile phone app and you'll know immediately if your kid farts while browsing online. At 11 (going on 14) and 7, I have to keep a tight reign on internet access, so Chromebooks rock at that. We put the iMac and the Windows 10 i3 laptop in the living room at a shared desk, so no one is gonna take any liberties there either.
