Monster Phonics (?) - Embedded videos hosted on Vimeo

[Koldov]

Just had a teacher come to me with an embedded video on Monster Phonics (I think) that has been blocked by our LGfL filtering.

 

I've never allowed Vimeo, but the teacher says they used this Phonics website absolutely no problem last year...

 

So either they've hosted the videos somewhere else previously or something has changed in the filtering.

 

Problem is I have no idea how to let these hosted videos through (and there's loads) without making an exception for Vimeo which I don't want to do.

 

The Headteacher had a video from a safeguarding website that he wanted to show on the inset day and it was hosted on Vimeo, so I put an exception in for the URL, but then it still wouldn't play (guess it redirected somewhere else). In the end I just opened the whole 'Social Networking' category and it played.

 

We have a good procedure for YouTube through Google where it is strict restricted and we have the ability to approve them, but there is nothing similar for Vimeo obviously...

[3s-gtech]

We just put it i to policy: videos hosted on Vimeo = we don’t use your product.

 

You could whitelist each video - some providers also do an IP check and will direct to self-hosted videos if they have your public IP.

[Koldov]

Why do so many educational resources use Vimeo?

 

Don't they know a lot of schools won't allow it as there's very little (or no) ability to safeguard/filter it?

 

Are we just being over-blockers...?

[PaddyNewman]

You can allow the videos on that site without allowing Vimeo on SchoolProtect by the way.

 

Embedded content tab, you will need HTTPS inspection but you'd be wanting to roll that out anyway.

 

More info in the training course, but it's a piece of cake

[FN-GM]

a video from a safeguarding website …. and it was hosted on Vimeo

 

Oh the irony [emoji31]

[ToyHeartsFan]

The school I was at wanted to live stream a RSC performance which was hosted on everyones favourite platform Vimeo. We were using RM safety net and there were quiet a few URLS that needed adding to the allowed list but from memory I managed to get it working so the live stream worked but they couldn't browse other videos.

 

The advantage of RM safety net being that I had four different proxy / filtering levels to play with so I could make changes to one only applied to my network account for testing until I got it working the way I wanted.

 

I think RM safety net also had a scheduled override option so the change only applied during a set time frame after which I removed access again.

 

First thing I would do if I was in your boat and got another similar request would be to very clear with the teacher and DSL why Vimeo is normally blocked then if possible I'd try to get the tech support from the site they are trying to use to work directly with the ISP / filtering provider so you don't end up having to manually allow hundreds of videos.

 

 

I can't remember which urls I allowed and which I blocked but I probably blocked the main Vimeo.com URL then added exceptions they have got url's for their cdn networks etc but I wouldn't blindly add them all becasue of the content they host; it would be a lot easier if Vimeo created a sub domain for approved educational videos:

 

https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/articles/12426098107793-Network-and-browser-requirements-for-viewing-streams

 

 

I just had a quick look at the site and some videos won't play without being logged in becuase "this video isn't rated" which is a step in the right direction for safeguarding but I still wouldn't trust the site enough to unblock it.

 

https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/articles/12426157083537-Content-ratings

[Koldov]

Just had a staff member come to me and say White Rose Education is also not playing embedded videos.... which has worked OK here for a few years....

 

I did get an email reply from Monster Phonics, basically saying that yes, they had moved all their content to Vimeo, but with no explanation as to why.

 

I guess White Rose Education must have done the same thing, but I wonder what's wrong with YouTube all of a sudden, has something changed that means they can't/won't host their videos on there?