3 Clicks To Make YouTube Safe for All Students

OK, we all know that moment: Plan One either zooms through or falls apart and Plan Two goes much the same way. Or a student asks that "perfect" building question and the whole "Let's find out" moment is unvetted and spontaneous. 48 eyes are on your projected screen and it's a complete crap shoot what your search will bring. The ads can be dicey and grown up fingers are NEVER fast enough to click away from inappropriate content in front of a live 9 year old audience.

We also know the independence and resourcefulness oozing from kids who are researching at stations. And haha, do we EVER know the eye contact two 5th grade boys make when they hit the inappropriate jackpot and flood one screen.

YouTube is such an amazing resource that I know many lessons and learning include it in many forms. Vetting the videos and creating approved Play Lists is an awesome resource for classroom use. However, anyone who has ever worked with kids knows it is a matter of time before they jump outside the lines.

Keeping our students safe online is of utmost importance. Here are THREE CLICKS that take YouTube from that nailbiting experience to a resource you can trust and enjoy.

I am going to show you how to switch YouTube to "Restricted Mode" and breathe a lot easier during research and independent exploration.

 You do not need to sign in to activate the Restricted Mode; however you DO need to sign in to lock the Restricted Mode so I suggest signing in when you begin.

After signing in scroll ALLLLLLLLLL the way down to the bottom of the page. Like the way way bottom.

At the VERY bottom of the page you will find the Restricted Mode option. The default is "OFF" so yours probably is OFF. Click on the arrow and change to "ON"

At this point you will need to click "On" then hit Save. You also see the option to "Lock Restricted Mode on this browser". This prevents any other user from changing to Unrestricted Mode.

That's it! Literally 3 Clicks change YouTube from an off limits website to a useful resource.

Let's take a look and notice a few things quickly. As YouTube says "No Filter is 100%accurate but it should help you filter most inappropriate content." I agree with this statement and I would like to note that I have not had any problems with inappropriate content since I have changed modes.

Please also note that this setting works only on THIS BROWSER. If a student opens a different browser then you need to check the settings again.

Also, for those times when it may be that someone has been off task the History Tab is to the right of the Restricted Mode tab and this will give you all the info you need.