johnwheatley Posted July 9, 2015 Posted July 9, 2015 Hi there Does anyone know of a way possibly through GP to automatically use youtube with the safety mode on, and if possible, though not essential, lock it so students can't turn it off. I know this can be done manually by the pupils, but a teacher has asked if this can be done automatically. Many thanks John
Valyyn Posted July 9, 2015 Posted July 9, 2015 (edited) Basically, I believe you have to force Google SafeSearch to be on - it and youtube safety mode are (unfortunately*) synonymous - if one is on, the other is too. (*Unfortunately because we'd like to have safety mode disabled for teachers - it blocks lots of videos that should be fine, but we'd have to disable safesearch too, which we don't want to do ) Ours is set on our web filter (Smoothwall) and I believe Impero can also set it. Otherwise, for Chrome this is easy, you can use the Chrome GPOs (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187202?hl=en&ref_topic=2936229), but that will only affect Chrome, not IE or anything else. You can also use Option 3 here: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/186669?hl=en Basically: To force SafeSearch for your network, you’ll need to update your DNS configuration. Set the DNS entry for Google (and any other Google ccTLD country subdomains your users may use) to be a CNAME for forcesafesearch.google.com. I guess that should do the youtube safety mode too (as no one seems to have been able to set one without the other, as mentioned above), but I've not tested it in all honesty. Edited to remove a bunch of incorrect stuff that I have just learned from halbaradkenafin, below. Edited July 9, 2015 by Valyyn
halbaradkenafin Posted July 9, 2015 Posted July 9, 2015 Basically, I believe you have to force Google SafeSearch to be on - it and youtube safety mode are (unfortunately*) synonymous - if one is on, the other is too. (*Unfortunately because we'd like to have safety mode disabled for teachers - it blocks lots of videos that should be fine, but we'd have to disable safesearch too, which we don't want to do ) Ours is set on our web filter (Smoothwall) and I believe Impero can also set it. We've got our Smoothwall set up to Safe Mode Off for staff but Safe Search on for everyone. It's due to there being two different Safe Search options in the Content Modifications Policies, we've got "Force Safesearch" for everyone but "Enable Google SafeSearch[beta]" set for just students. We ran into the problem of Youtube Safe mode blocking videos staff needed as well and after a few minutes on the phone to Smoothwall we found out this was the way to fix it. 1
Valyyn Posted July 9, 2015 Posted July 9, 2015 We've got our Smoothwall set up to Safe Mode Off for staff but Safe Search on for everyone. It's due to there being two different Safe Search options in the Content Modifications Policies, we've got "Force Safesearch" for everyone but "Enable Google SafeSearch[beta]" set for just students. We ran into the problem of Youtube Safe mode blocking videos staff needed as well and after a few minutes on the phone to Smoothwall we found out this was the way to fix it. ......you're a genius, that's awesome. Thank you!
johnwheatley Posted July 10, 2015 Author Posted July 10, 2015 Okay Followed the google instructions, loaded chrome msi for students and deployed, downloaded admx and adm policies - and that's where it sort of goes a tad pear shaped. School server is 2008 but will only load the adm policies and not the admx. Consequently do not have the content policy to turn on/off safe search. Which I believe according to google can be done. # kind of stuck john
localzuk Posted July 10, 2015 Posted July 10, 2015 ADMX files aren't installed via the same method as .adm files. Instructions on installing .admx files (and their associated .adml files) are here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530196.aspx
Arthur Posted July 10, 2015 Posted July 10, 2015 downloaded admx and adm policies Don't bother with the ADM file. That's for obsolete operating systems like XP and Server 2003. Create a Group Policy central store if you haven't already and copy the ADMX/ADML files into the relevant folders.
johnwheatley Posted July 10, 2015 Author Posted July 10, 2015 Boy oh boy. Followed the MS instructions to the T. copied files to : Sysvol/domain/policies/PolicyDefinitions/en-gb/ Open gp and followed instructions create new policy object - edit - will detect polices etc - and nadda - doesn't pick up the policies.
Arthur Posted July 10, 2015 Posted July 10, 2015 copied files to : Sysvol/domain/policies/PolicyDefinitions/en-gb/ It sounds like you have the files in the wrong place. \\YourDomain\sysvol\YourDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\chrome.admx \\YourDomain\sysvol\YourDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-GB\chrome.adml \\YourDomain\sysvol\YourDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\chrome.adml
johnwheatley Posted July 10, 2015 Author Posted July 10, 2015 AHA! Bingo. Many many thanks. Placed the admx in the same en-gb folder. Thanks again. John
localzuk Posted July 10, 2015 Posted July 10, 2015 You've put the admx into the en-gb folder? That isn't right. .admx go into the PolicyDefinitions folder. The .adml files go into the EN-GB or EN-US folder (as specified in the download).
johnwheatley Posted July 10, 2015 Author Posted July 10, 2015 Yep Got that. Changed it. All working fine. Brill
edutech4schools Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Sorry to hijack, Should I create the EN-GB folder if I do not have one or will that cause issue. Currently only have EN-US in PolicyDefinitions folder
hyb80 Posted July 15, 2015 Posted July 15, 2015 We've got our Smoothwall set up to Safe Mode Off for staff but Safe Search on for everyone. It's due to there being two different Safe Search options in the Content Modifications Policies, we've got "Force Safesearch" for everyone but "Enable Google SafeSearch[beta]" set for just students. We ran into the problem of Youtube Safe mode blocking videos staff needed as well and after a few minutes on the phone to Smoothwall we found out this was the way to fix it. Just to clarify, on Smoothwall you can basically apply different rules for youtube safety mode to Staff and Students? Applying safety mode across the site has not been a popular move (and I can see why) but at the time was our only option. If correct, Does anyone know if this is yet possible with Lightspeed?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now