YouTube is notoriously blocked by several school districts, the Chicago Public Schools being the most prominent example in my mind.  YouTube has a LOT of great educational content, but unfortunately this content gets pushed down due to the controversial content that the media grabs onto.

Yesterday, YouTube took a major step in solving this issue for parents and schools: YouTube Safety Mode. From the Google Blog:

Diversity of content is one of the great things about YouTube. But we know that some of you want a more controlled experience. That’s why we’re announcing Safety Mode, an opt-in setting that helps screen out potentially objectionable content that you may prefer not to see or don’t want others in your family to stumble across while enjoying YouTube. An example of this type of content might be a newsworthy video that contains graphic violence such as a political protest or war coverage. While no filter is 100% perfect, Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site.

A video demonstration is below.  In my opinion, this is an excellent filter, and should solve school district’s issues with YouTube.  You can now lock down the computer’s browser so that kids can’t disable the filter.  While this is far from perfect, it’s a major step.  I even have this enabled for my account, and I like YouTube a lot more now; it keeps a lot of the garbage out.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.