YouTube and RM

[Norbert]

Great. RM have decided in their infinite wisdom to enforce restrictions on YouTube which has caused chaos here. According to them this is a permanent change. Modifying the permissions within GSuite has no effect whatsoever. Anyone got a way around this? I've got some seriously hacked off teachers here who rely on YouTube for parts of their lessons and they can no longer access the resources.

[Steve21]

It shouldn't be permanent, they've got an internal case open to resolve it as it wasn't supposed to happen (SWGfL side anyway)

 

Steve

[Norbert]

Sadly, the response from RM is as follows, "Last week we have updated SafetyNet platform to enforce YouTube moderate restricted mode for customers. This blocks access to content not suitable for children and removes the ability to read or write comments. This is a permanent change. However if the school having G Suite tenancy , you can manage YouTube restriction mode on a per-user basis. The bellow link will give you more information. "

 

Making changes in GSuite doesn't work. If they don't get it resolved and soon I'll be onto my account manager as the service is not now fit for purpose. I appreciate the need to keep students safe but this is taking the biscuit!

[James_RM]

Hi all,

 

I've posted on EduGeek before but for those that don't know me, I'm Head of the RM Education Infrastructure business, which includes our RM SafetyNet offering. I just wanted to give absolute clarity on the matter personally as I fully appreciate this has had an impact on some of our customers. The following is going to be added to our status page imminently and will also be directly communicated to any customers that have raised related service calls.

 

Last week we rolled out a change to enable YouTube’s new restricted mode for all RM broadband and RM SafetyNet customers, as part of continued investment in RM SafetyNet during an exciting time for the product. For this particular feature though, we have decided to rollback this change to facilitate a growing request from customers to disable the mode. The rollback will take place this evening. More details below:

 

YouTube restricted mode is a network-wide setting that disables comments & hides inappropriate videos based on Google’s filters, and our implementation of this has come about because we’re applying their recommended method for preventing access to adult videos.

 

For a variety of reasons customers may want to disable this mode and whilst Google themselves offer guidance on how to do this, we recognise now that customers would benefit from the ability to disable this with greater ease.

 

We maintain that implementing the ability to enable YouTube restricted mode is a positive step forward in providing Schools with a safe and secure online experience, but customers can expect us to be back with clear communication and guidance on the matter before re-releasing the feature.

 

I hope this helps and if anyone has any thoughts or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly, the Support team, or your Account Manager.

 

Thanks,

 

James Browning

[mavhc]

I found that restricted mode for the students wasn't restricted enough, lots of distracting content, I'd rather block all videos and have teachers whitelist stuff. Second problem is a teacher approving a video doesn't mean you can search for it in youtube, you have to be given the link

[Steve21]

For a variety of reasons customers may want to disable this mode and whilst Google themselves offer guidance on how to do this, we recognise now that customers would benefit from the ability to disable this with greater ease.

 

"This article is for YouTube settings in G Suite."

 

Think RM missed an important part there if that's the official answer We don't use G Suite and don't intend to. While giving an option to implement it isn't a bad option, it needs to be disabled per an option too.

 

Steve

[snagrat]

I don’t quite get this. We only allow YouTube on the Staffproxy anyway so why would we want it to be restricted?

[DJ-1701]

I don’t quite get this. We only allow YouTube on the Staffproxy anyway so why would we want it to be restricted?

 

That is the silly thing... by default YouTube is disallowed on the gfl. You either have to unfilter it or use the staff proxy bypass... so why force changes if people have allowed access manually... especially with no notification.

[Norbert]

Likewise, we control staff access to YouTube (unrestricted - sheesh, they are grown adults and are in the best position to decide what they do and do not deem appropriate in the classroom) and students (restricted for 6th Form and blocked for pre-sixth form)

 

We do use Google's GSuite and have set up policies on a per OU basis but RM's implementation simply did not respect those settings.

 

Blanket changes like this are daft at best as you cannot possibly test for every scenario. Net result here is that the start of the new half-term has been disrupted and there are a lot of disgruntled teachers whose jobs are hard enough without this sort of thing being imposed on them. Unless it has come from the DofE themselves that this needs to be done, why not let us as network managers make the decisions based on our own school policies as to what is best and how to manage the resource.

[foofighterjim]

And there was me thinking that our rules in Smotthwall were broken and was about to open a call with them about it. We don't even use SafetyNet and just use RM as an ISP, no idea as to the logic that would result in this change being applied on all connections.

[Steve21]

And there was me thinking that our rules in Smotthwall were broken and was about to open a call with them about it. We don't even use SafetyNet and just use RM as an ISP, no idea as to the logic that would result in this change being applied on all connections.

 

Yep, especially when it's still applied to an unfiltered staffproxy login! Took me a few minutes to wonder about our Smoothie too until I realised it affected both!

 

Steve

[mavhc]

"This article is for YouTube settings in G Suite."

 

Think RM missed an important part there if that's the official answer We don't use G Suite and don't intend to. While giving an option to implement it isn't a bad option, it needs to be disabled per an option too.

 

Steve

 

Way more sites seem to offer Google logins than Microsoft logins though, worth setting up a sync from AD to GSuite just for that (or sso via azure ad, etc)

[AlanD]

I hate it when big business or government starts deciding for you what you will want....

 

There are lots of really useful - and appropriate YouTube clips - for example say on the WWII that are perfectly suitable for - well certainly older children - especially under class guidance.

 

The requirement for filtering is to be "Age Appropriate" and simply enforcing youtube safemode doesn't deliver that requirement.

 

I'd like to see RM listen, discus and debate with users what their requirement might be rather than simply decide for them.

[CHiLL]

I found that restricted mode for the students wasn't restricted enough, lots of distracting content, I'd rather block all videos and have teachers whitelist stuff. Second problem is a teacher approving a video doesn't mean you can search for it in youtube, you have to be given the link

We have Youtube unblocked at the RM level. We use Impero for classroom management and have a group containing all students. We then restrict Youtube on that group to block student access. This allows our staff access to Youtube, but not our students. I've also created groups for individual staff in IT suites so that they can temporarily allow Youtube for students in their lesson, like in Media Studies for example.

[mavhc]

We have Youtube unblocked at the RM level. We use Impero for classroom management and have a group containing all students. We then restrict Youtube on that group to block student access. This allows our staff access to Youtube, but not our students. I've also created groups for individual staff in IT suites so that they can temporarily allow Youtube for students in their lesson, like in Media Studies for example.

 

Yeah, same.

 

What I'd like from youtube is a whitelist mode, and be able to search for whitelisted videos. They're almost there.