YouTube age-restricted content

[cbsc]

I am after some advice!

 

Some of our staff are currently experiencing issues with certain YouTube videos that are age-restricted.

 

This relates to the following announcement in September 2020:

 

https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/using-technology-more-consistently-apply-age-restrictions

 

Some of our staff are able to view age-restricted videos successfully. When they browse to the video they are prompted that "this video may be inappropriate for some users" and an option to confirm that "I understand and wish to proceed". The video subsequently loads without any issues.

 

 

However some staff aren't able to view these age-restricted videos. When they browse to the video they are prompted to "verify your age" and an option to "verify". However when they choose this option they are taken to another page informing them that Google "can't verify age" and that their "Google Account isn't authorised to use Google Payments". Obviously our staff are not going to start entering their credit card details in order to verify their age (even if we were to turn on Google Payments), and I assume that this is a glitch.

 

 

 

All of our staff are using their school Google Workspace for Education accounts. This happens both at the school and off the network. All staff have the same settings applied to their accounts via the Google Admin Console, and it is not possible to set a DOB (that I'm aware of).

 

Has anyone else experienced similar behaviour? If so, did you manage to get around the issue?

 

Here are two examples of videos that are age-restricted:

 

 

[roymorden]

Same issue here as of yesterday, age restricted contecnt not availbale to verified teachers, paid for content also nto available and private accounts also having issues.

[paulkerton]

I've not had any reports of this yet.

Are your teachers in your classroom_teachers Google Group?

[thimon]

Are you running Lightspeed? This / similar problem was an issue with an old agent version.

[mikeishere555]

Are all staff in the same OU? If so, what restriction level have you got set for them?

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/6212415?hl=en

[cbsc]

I've not had any reports of this yet.

Are your teachers in your classroom_teachers Google Group?

 

I can confirm that all of our teachers are members of the classroom_teachers Google group.

[cbsc]

Are you running Lightspeed? This / similar problem was an issue with an old agent version.

 

No, we are not running Lightspeed.

[cbsc]

Are all staff in the same OU? If so, what restriction level have you got set for them?

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/6212415?hl=en

 

Teaching staff and non-teaching staff are in separate OUs, but have the same settings applied to them in the Google Admin Console.

 

All users in our domain have "Moderate Restricted YouTube access" applied, including staff. However we enabled the option "Verified Google Classroom teachers can approve videos", which gives teachers the equivalent of "Unrestricted YouTube access".

 

According to Google, Restricted Mode and age-restricted videos are not the same. So we wouldn't expect the above settings to make any difference to age-restricted content:

 

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7354993?hl=en#zippy=%2Cis-restricted-mode-the-same-as-age-gating-or-age-restricting-videos

[k9mjl]

Has anyone managed to get access to restricted videos? I have spent the last 2 days on various Chats with Google and keep going round in circles. Everything is setup in the admin console so that the Staff and Admin OU's have the YouTube settings set to Unrestricted.

 

I have a history teacher trying to play a video -

(I am told the exam boards provide this link)

 

Any pointers appreciated.

[ChrisH]

We had similar issues a while back on our Netsweeper filtered connection, after some adjustments were made by our county behaviour on the staff policies, it hasn't been an issue again but I still see it on the pupils sometimes so I would say there is definitely some web filter interaction there.

[ChrisH]

In fact I just proved my point with that link, staff account goes through no issue test student account:

 

[k9mjl]

Thanks, we have already ruled this out.

[k9mjl]

Think we have finally got to the bottom of this, after yet another chat session with Google and chatting to a different person again, I was finally given this nugget of information:

 

"Further, some videos are not eligible for approval due to the configuration and upload settings. Videos restricted with age, are not eligible for EDU organization due to the COPPA agreement you have signed with your organization"

 

Videos which state underneath "Notice: Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)" cannot be played. Others such as this one

show a banner underneath allowing the teacher to approve the video

 

[paulkerton]

Started to get reports of this coming through now. We have staff being asked for age verification (ID/Credit card) has anyone seen that?

[k9mjl]

Started to get reports of this coming through now. We have staff being asked for age verification (ID/Credit card) has anyone seen that?

 

Yes, You cannot verify staff as you have an 'Edu domain'

[paulkerton]

Yes, You cannot verify staff as you have an 'Edu domain'

So we're at the point where that content is simply now unavailable?

[cbsc]

Think we have finally got to the bottom of this, after yet another chat session with Google and chatting to a different person again, I was finally given this nugget of information:

 

"Further, some videos are not eligible for approval due to the configuration and upload settings. Videos restricted with age, are not eligible for EDU organization due to the COPPA agreement you have signed with your organization"

 

Videos which state underneath "Notice: Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)" cannot be played. Others such as this one

show a banner underneath allowing the teacher to approve the video

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61293[/ATTACH]

 

That is an interesting response from Google Support.

 

I'm not sure it is correct though, as I myself (and a few other colleagues) are able to access age-restricted YouTube videos when signed in with our school Google Workspace accounts.

 

I still believe that this is a bug. Google appear to be in the process of rolling this feature out, and it appears to be randomly affecting users. How else can one explain how some users can access these videos, and others can't. All have the same settings applied to them in the Google Admin console.

[cbsc]

Started to get reports of this coming through now. We have staff being asked for age verification (ID/Credit card) has anyone seen that?

 

Yes, as per my original post. Our staff are getting prompted to verify their age (using a credit card), which even if they wanted to, they can't as the system doesn't permit them to.

[the_quick]

This is starting to cause issues for us. Video that was fine before now is age restricted, works on my private Gmail account, but not on the school one. And the video is about heart dissection, just weird

[StephenPink]

We're getting reports of this now - for history videos, relating to Nazi's! Was there ever confirmation if this was a bug/by design/if there's a setting to change?

 

Thanks,

Stephen

[paulkerton]

It's by design, as the EU/UK are requiring age verification by law (Audiovisual Media Services Directive). This means they're not available for EDU accounts it seems, and as YouTube in Schools isn't a core service, so isn't a supported service, then it very much seems like there isn't much we can do.

 

Nothing as of yet as to how things might change or be altered in the future.

[caffrey]

Just had my first report of this too

[DrCheese]

This is dumb. We should be able to verify that someone is a teacher. I suspect they don't trust us not to mark all the kids as "approved" which is why we can't

 

So the only solution is for the staff member to setup a personal account & use that?

[the_quick]

or find an alternative video that isn't blocked. Thankfully we have very understanding staff here and after explanation, they accepted we cannot do anything about it.

[psydii]

This email has just started to hit our users inboxes.

 

 

"We’re reaching out because you use YouTube at school with a Google Workspace for Education account. In this type of account, you use your school email address, and your school administrator manages your access to Google products like YouTube.

 

 

 

Starting in the coming weeks: Because your school admin has marked you as under 18 years old, you’ll see a new, limited version of YouTube designed for schools when you use your school account. This means you won’t be able to do things like comment, live chat, or receive most notifications. You also won’t be able to create YouTube videos and may not be able to watch certain videos.

 

 

 

This new experience is automatically given to students marked as under 18. But this only impacts your YouTube experience on your school account and does not impact the YouTube experience on your personal account.

 

 

 

If you have uploaded videos to your school YouTube account, your channel will be hidden. You can download and save your videos using Google Takeout (when turned on by your admin).

 

 

 

In the coming months we will also be launching a tool that will allow you to directly move videos from your school account channel to a personal account. We will reach out with more details when the tool opens.

 

 

 

For more info on your school YouTube account, please visit our Help Center.

 

 

 

Thanks,

The YouTube team"

 

Solution is here: https://support.google.com/a/answer/10651918?hl=en#zippy=%2Cservices-not-available-to-users-under%2Cgoogle-maps-and-google-earth%2Cgoogle-search%2Cyoutube