Greenville Co. Schools blocks YouTube on devices due to potential access to inappropriate videos

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Greenville County Schools (GCS) announced that they are blocking YouTube on all student devices after a recent change allowed students to potentially access inappropriate content.

Officials said this change means students can no longer access YouTube videos from their Chromebooks at school or home.

According to officials, recent changes made by YouTube and its parent company Google, allowed students to possibly see videos that include violent or sexual content. Officials stated that the content is shown through “YouTube Shorts,” which are videos under 60 seconds that cannot be blocked or filtered by the district.

GSC, along with other districts, reportedly notified Google about the issue. However, officials said Google reported that it wouldn’t be possible to block all of the inappropriate content without blocking YouTube entirely.

GSC officials stated that not blocking YouTube would violate the Federal Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires the district to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy. More information regarding the district’s policy can be found on their website.

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