How do you set up YouTube restricted mode?

YouTube Restricted Mode is a great way to limit students’ access to inappropriate content on YouTube. Setting up the YouTube restricted mode will give you greater flexibility in administering videos and channels. You can allow specific videos for specific groups of students to suit their educational requirements.

It is important to remember that the Securly YouTube settings override the Google Workspace YouTube settings only if users are NOT logged into YouTube. When users are logged in, the Google Workspace settings override the Securly YouTube settings. This means that Google Workspace settings would also override videos added to any of the Allow lists.  

You can check your current YouTube restrictions by clicking here before proceeding with the setup. 

Securly YouTube Enforcement 

If you are a Securly Chrome Extension user, you do not need to set up the restricted mode separately in G Suite. Check out this KB on how to set up YouTube restricted mode via Securly. 

By default, Google authentication does not affect YouTube authentication. This means that just because you are logged into Google does not necessarily mean you're logged into YouTube. If you want to tie authentication for Google and YouTube together, please consider enabling the following settings in the G Suite.

G Suite App-level Settings for YouTube

Note that if you do not set up YouTube Restricted Mode in the G Suite, your users will not get G Suite Restricted Mode when they sign in with their school credentials.

1. Log into the Google Admin Console at https://admin.google.com
2. Click on Apps.
3. Click on Additional Google services.
4. Near the bottom of the list, click on YouTube.
5. The YouTube service needs to be enabled for these features to work. This is per the OU settings.
6. Click on Permissions.
7. Click to select the OU you would like to change permission for.  This is set in each OU or inherited.
8. Set the level of permission for this OU.
9. The settings explained:
   
   • Strict Restricted YouTube access—Enabled by default, only when you choose the option “restrict content for logged-in users in your organization”.
   • Moderate Restricted YouTube access—Users can only watch restricted and approved videos. This offering is similar to the Restricted Mode setting in the YouTube app and offers a larger corpus of videos than the Strict offering.
   • Unrestricted YouTube access—Users can browse all of YouTube when signed-in even if you have also set network-level restrictions.
   • Can approve videos—You can designate individuals or organizational units to approve videos so that signed-in users in their organization can watch them.
10. Click Save. This may take up to 24 hours to change.
11. Once you set the permission level on all OUs, click on Content Settings.
12. "Signing-in users in your organization can only watch restricted and approved videos" must be checked to enable approval or restrictions from these settings.         
13. To view all approvals by, going to this link: YouTube Approvals
    NOTE: Like will show a 403 error if there are no approvals in your domain. 
14. The link will bring you to the page where you can review approved videos and channels.
15. You can click on the entries to view the video or channel, email approver, or delete the entry.
16. Back under Content settings, there is a section for special approvers. You can allow only Verified Google Classroom teachers to approve videos here.
17. The set up for YouTube Restricted is done.  

Restricted Mode for YouTube User Settings

1. Go to App > Additional Google services > Settings for YouTube > Permissions. 
2. Select the top level or the OU on the left side.
3. Expand the 'Permissions at this level' field and select "Unrestricted YouTube access"
4. Other settings can conflict with the network or YouTube app settings explained below. 

User-level settings allow you to set up restrictions for specific users and it is not recommended to use user-level settings as your first line of defense. Always use app-level settings for maximum protection. 

Teacher Perspective

1. Visit YouTube. 
2. Click sign-in on the top-right if you are not already signed into a YouTube account.                  
3. Make sure you sign into a school YouTube account. Click on the icon in the top right to verify. YouTube channel accounts currently cannot approve videos or use app permissions.
4. When you visit any site you will have a blue bar stating the status of the video. This video can be approved for your organization. It will then be allowed for all users signed into an organization's YouTube account to view the video.  
5. If the video is already approved you will see the remove button.
6. Some videos are allowed by YouTube automatically. 
7. You can also approve the whole channel. This will allow you to approve school channels and curriculum sites.

Student Perspective

1. If a student is not signed into YouTube, they will get network-level enforcement as per your Securly Policy. Logging into YouTube will allow for more permission.
   
   
2. Searches will be limited and give this notification "Some results have been removed because Restricted Mode is enabled."
3. The student will be presented with an error when trying to view a video that is a restricted video. "The video is unavailable with Restricted Mode enabled. To view this video, you will need to disable Restricted Mode." 
4. Users with approval rights can view the video on their own device and click the approve button to allow the video for all users.
5. The above message is different than a securly blocked page. If the administrator has blocked all of youtube.com it will show a Securly block page.  See the example below.    

Additional resources:

G Suite Best Practices for 1-1 Roll-Outs + YouTube Restricted Mode Webinar

Restrict YouTube content on your network or managed devices