Last spring I posted Our District Just Activated Awful YouTube Safety Mode – What’s Been Your Experience?

I learned quickly that it was a pain in the butt across the country, with few – if any – solutions.

It continues to be a problem for us. Here’s what our District says:

When Google/YouTube began providing content in encrypted format by default, our content filters were unable to inspect results (e.g., videos, images, etc.) for permissibility in the K12 context. To meet our obligation to prevent restricted content delivery, we were forced to rely upon Google/YouTube’s internal classification mechanism, which we understand is imprecise.

We also understand that Google and YouTube frequently block valuable instructional content, and are actively working with our vendor to find suitable alternatives to the current approach. Please bear with us as we search for a resolution to this issue.

And, though this “work around” is probably familiar to many, I thought that my colleague Shana Just laid it out very clearly and simply, and thought it would be useful for others to read and maybe share with their colleagues:

1. At home, download a free video conversion software (I use “Basic-YTD Video Downloader” but there are lots of them out there. Instructions may vary slightly depending on which one you use.).

2. Find the YouTube video you want and start it playing.

3. Copy the entire URL from the video and paste it into the downloader.

4. Select where you want to save the video. If you want to bring it to school, you will need to save it to an USB thumb drive or other portable drive.

5. Download the video. It will save it as a .mp4. You can also convert it or save it as a .mov file if you prefer QuickTime format.

6. Once the video is on the USB drive, you can plug it into any computer and play it without restriction.

7. Also might be an idea to create a Videos folder in your department folder on the Share drive.

I’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations!