Filtering Youtube Content

GoGuardian Policies contain granular filtering options for regulating YouTube videos. These policies will be applied to videos found on youtube.com as well as any YouTube videos embedded on other sites. 

This article addresses the following info that can be found on GoGuardian Admin policies via Youtube settings applied to OUs HERE

• Toggle Options to disable Youtube comments or sidebar
• Custom Filter Rules for blocking and allowing specific videos
• Videos, Keywords, Categories 
• Note on Youtube Playlists

Toggle Options

Age Restriction - Enabling Age Restriction will block all videos deemed not suitable for users under 18 years of age. Exceptions can be made by adding allow rules for specific videos or channels. See this Google Support article for more information about age restriction in YouTube. 

Block Sidebar - Enabling Block Sidebar will hide the "Up next" and related videos sidebar next to all videos. 

Block Comments - Enabling Block Comments will hide comment sections below Youtube videos. Note: This setting does not apply to Youtube Live Stream chat threads. 

Block Live Chat - Enabling Block Live Chat will remove the chat section from live stream videos.

Restrictive Mode - Enabling Restrictive Mode will block all videos except for videos or channels explicitly allowed within the same policy. 

Our recommended Best Practice for filtering YouTube content is to enable most of these toggles in your policies.

Custom Filter Rules

Channels

Entire Youtube channels can be blocked or allowed in bulk on the Channels tab.

• Block Rules - Blocking channels is useful for quickly blocking distracting or inappropriate content by channel.
• Allow Rules - Allowing channels is useful for making exceptions for educational content in "Restrictive Mode" scenarios or when a channel contains videos that belong to a blocked category. 

To add a Channel filter:

1. Navigate to the channel's YouTube home page. Copy the channel's URL that appears in the address bar.
2. Paste the channel URL into the respective field on the channel tab. Then click Block or Allow.

Videos

Individual YouTube videos can be blocked or allowed using the Videos tab. 

• Block Rules - Used to block individual videos on a case-by-case basis. 
• Allow Rules - Useful for overriding category blocks or when Restrictive Mode is enabled. 

The Videos filter expects exact URLs sourced from the address bar (shown below).

Note: Shortened "Share" URLs (youtu.be URLs, shown below) are not compatible with the Videos filter. Instead, ensure that the URL is copied from the address bar. (shown above)

Keywords

Videos can be blocked by user-defined keywords. Videos with titles or descriptions that contain any terms defined in the Keywords filter will be blocked. The Keywords field accepts individual terms or phrases. 

Categories

Entire categories of videos can be blocked by content category. Mark the checkbox for a category, and any video that matches that category will be blocked by the filter.

Note: Categories are defined by YouTube and video categories are labeled by the content creator, so some videos may be self-reported inaccurately. 

Multiple Policies

When multiple policies are inherited by or applied to an OU, policy rules are combined. The rightmost policy takes precedence in the event of a rule conflict. To see the result of the combined Youtube policy rule, use the policy comparison tool, then select Youtube (shown below). Use the drop-down to switch between Youtube tabs.

Note on Youtube Playlists

The YouTube filter does not fully support Youtube Playlists. If a YouTube channel has a playlist that contains a video owned by another channel, it may be blocked by a category, keyword, or Restrictive Mode. In this case, each individual video URL on the playlist must be "Allowed" on the Videos tab.