This spring, students of Weber Middle School were shocked to find there was a newly established ban on YouTube for all school devices. In this article, we will cover all the details needed to get YOUR opinion on this block.
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a video sharing platform founded in 2005 by three ex-Paypal employees: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It was originally a video dating site, but after realizing its broader potential, the three founders converted it into all kinds of videos. The first video, “Me at the zoo” was created by Jawed Karim as an “experiment” to see how well his idea went.
Why was it banned?
The ban was part of several changes that were made to Google student accounts that were required by New York State Education Law. However, many people believe it was probably banned due to people not using it for educational purposes, like watching stories, blogs, and more content. I can admit that I have used Chromebooks for watching Reddit stories, but that is beside the point. People were using the site for things other than their schoolwork, and could have easily found inappropriate content.
Is the ban fair?
Many students are in outrage over this, with most saying that they used YouTube to watch educational videos that their teacher assigned. In order to give students a YouTube video for a better understanding of some topics, teachers now have to embed the link directly onto Google Classroom in order for it to work.
I personally believe that the YouTube ban is doing more harm than good. A student from Green 6 said, ”I think something bad must have happened to enact the YouTube ban, but I think it’s unfair to ban YouTube for people who want to use it for informational purposes.” An 8th grader said, ”I think it’s justified because the government is spying on us through YouTube.” What do you think?