YouTube Safety Mode - Is it me?

[Synkrox]

Is it me or is it a massive oversight that we cannot force safety mode on through our filtering boxes?

I know the standard reply is "education mode" but at secondary level its really not practical to have to whitelist all the videos anyone might ever want to watch on the site which has all the videos in the world on.

I know safety mode is not infallible but surely its a great deal better than the "unfiltered" version.

 

I have posted a question on the Youtube forum. I'm not holding my breath for a reply from anyone at google, but perhaps if you agree that this cookie setting is terribly impractical then you could look at commenting/starring my post to try and get some attention from it: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/youtube/BdCO_0waxgU

 

I'm using a Fortigate box to filter internet here. If anyone has a suggestion on how I can sort this out another way I'd be pleased to hear it!

 

Chris

[Sagima]

I 'm pretty sure it's forced on through our smoothwall so I imagine fortigate will have a similar option

[Synkrox]

Nope, safesearch for bing,yahoo,google etc but not safety mode. Have spoke to them and as its cookie based they don't have a solution.

 

 

Was the issue with smoothwall no longer being able to force it resolved then? http://www.edugeek.net/forums/internet-related-filtering-firewall/50497-force-youtube-safety-mode-2.html

Edited November 7, 2014 by Synkrox

[Sagima]

You've made me check now!

 

It is set as on for the students and off for staff but regardless of who is logged inthe bit at the bottom says safety mode off. Importantly the dodgy videos themselves come up with "This video is unavailable in safety mode" for the students.

[themightymrp]

We use Bloxx and that enables us to turn the safe search on... must be possible in other appliances too??

[Synkrox]

Interesting, I wonder what's going on behind the scenes there then and if Fortigate could replicate it in some way.

[Synkrox]

Safesearch is fine, I am on about Youtube Safety Mode specifically.

[themightymrp]

 

If you mean the safety mode which gives this kind of screen, then that is what I'm referring to. I had to lower the standard 'moderate' level for staff because it was blocking all sorts

[Iain]

You can set it at the network level by using the same DNS hack that you can use to force SafeSearch in google search (See option 3 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/186669?hl=en). Create a new DNS zone for www.youtube.com and then create a new CNAME within this zone, leave the alias blank and set the hostname to forcesafesearch.google.com.

 

[hyb80]

You can set it at the network level by using the same DNS hack that you can use to force SafeSearch in google search (See option 3 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/186669?hl=en). Create a new DNS zone for www.youtube.com and then create a new CNAME within this zone, leave the alias blank and set the hostname to forcesafesearch.google.com.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27460[/ATTACH]

 

Anyone tried this ? Does it work over https?

[Iain]

Anyone tried this ? Does it work over https?

 

I've got it set up this way here and it works with HTTPS, whether signed into YouTube or not. When you try and change the SafetyMode setting using the option at the bottom of the page you get the attached message:

 

 

 

The only downside is that it is a blanket setting for the network, so you can't disable it for certain users.

 

Iain.

[hyb80]

Mistake post Edited November 21, 2014 by hyb80

[Iain]

I created a new primary zone for http://www.youtube.com (the www is important!) as the zone needs to be authoritative:

 

 

Then, in your new http://www.youtube.com zone, create a new CNAME record with a blank alias and with forcesafesearch.google.com as the FQDN for the target host:

 

 

Iain.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Iain
spelling

[hyb80]

Cheers for that. Need to clear this before enforcing it across the school.

 

Will let you know how I get on.

[Synkrox]

Thanks Iain,

However you cannot create a DNS record that way (at least not in 2008R2) as it gives an incompatible format error.

Similar but relevant thread here:https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/eebd5c3f-8d96-4014-9852-f3028c71d930/implementing-cname-wwwgooglecom-pointing-to-nosslsearchgooglecom-without-making-dns-server?forum=winserverDS

 

To get around this - If you create an A record instead and point it to the IP of forcesafesearch.google.com (216.239.38.120) then it resolves fine and you can access youtube, However safety mode is still not on, and it has no effect.

 

Are you positive this is how you have it set up and it works? could there be something else you have done to force it on?

 

Chris

[Iain]

Hi Chris,

 

I added these records to our DNS a while back, so it may have been on an old 2008 DNS.

 

Having said that, I've just tested by adding a DNAME record (under Other New Records...) instead of a CNAME record on our new 2012r2 DNS and that worked fine (don't forget to clear all caches ipconfig /flushdns etc.)

 

 

Iain.

[hyb80]

Just set this up and preliminary testing would seem that this does indeed work Server 2008 R2 creating a DNAME file.

 

Had to flushdns on the client PC

[Synkrox]

Top man! Result.

Many thanks

[bilbogeek]

Hi, this works great for google and youtube on desktop machines but it doesn't seem to work for the youtube app on our tablets. Any ideas.

[hyb80]

So far can't get the app to behave so pulled it and set up a redirect for both m.youtube.com and s.youtube.com to YouTube.com in lightspeed. This seems to force safe search via the browser.

[Opendium_Steve]

I think the app uses googleapis.com instead of youtube.com. Unfortunately redirecting it to forcesafesearch doesn't work and I've not seen any documentation relating to doing this for the app.

 

On the other hand, Youtube's Safety Mode seems to be extremely aggressive, blocking an awful lot of completely innocent videos, so it seems that a lot of schools simply don't use it at all...

[caffrey]

If you use chrome rather than IE, you can set this via GPO via the force safesearch setting, it also enforces it in Youtube.

 

I agree with the overblocking, I uploaded a video to our school channel and no one could view it - it was totally innocent.

[irod87]

I just got this to work using LAIN DNAME instructions. Thanks! This will be better than straight unfiltered results.

[OB1]

Nope, safesearch for bing,yahoo,google etc but not safety mode. Have spoke to them and as its cookie based they don't have a solution.

 

 

Was the issue with smoothwall no longer being able to force it resolved then? http://www.edugeek.net/forums/internet-related-filtering-firewall/50497-force-youtube-safety-mode-2.html

 

This issue was definitely resolved.

Just to clarify, are you using smoothwall? If so drop me a PM, I'll see what I can do.