My child is able to see restricted content on YouTube

If YouTube Restrictions are enabled your child shouldn’t be able to view any restricted or unrated content on YouTube.  If they are able to, there may be a problem with the device or your settings.

Steps to resolve:

• Check the device is being filtered correctly

  • iOS (Apple)

  • Android

  • Mac

  • Windows

  • Chromebook

• Check the device is assigned to the correct owner

• Adjust your settings if YouTube restrictions are not on

My child isn’t able to watch any videos on YouTube other than kids videos

With YouTube Restrictions turned on any 18+ or unrated videos are not able to be watched.  A large proportion of videos on YouTube are unrated which limits what your child may be able to see.  You may need to consider relaxing your settings to allow your child to see more videos.

Actions to resolve:

• Check the device is assigned to the correct owner

• Adjust your settings if YouTube restrictions are turned on

My child is able to watch YouTube videos when they are in sleep time

Most device types (iOS (Apple), Android and Chromebook) should stop YouTube Videos within 5 minutes of your child transitioning to an access period in which they are blocked.  Some of our filtering technologies (e.g. Window & Mac Laptops) are unable to stop YouTube videos once they’ve started, however they should be unable to start new videos.  If you are at all concerned you should check the device.

Actions to resolve:

• Check the device is being filtered correctly

  • iOS (Apple)

  • Android

  • Mac

  • Windows

  • Chromebook

• Reload the page and see if the video starts again

My child/student gets the error message “This video is restricted. Try signing in with a G Suite account” when they try to watch some YouTube videos

This error generally occurs when your child is trying to watch a video restricted video and YouTube restrictions are being enforced.  This may be because they are blocked by Family Zone or they are being enforced through the managed Google account they are logged in with (e.g. a school account). 

Actions to resolve for parents:

• Check the settings on the users age profile and relax them by allowing Mature and uncategorised YouTube content

• If you are using Chrome, try logging back into G Suite with the child’s school account if they have been logged out

• If you are using Chrome, try watching the video in another browser e.g. IE, Safari, Firefox, Edge

• If you are using a School Managed Google account, Contact the school and advise the administrator of the error and ask if they will relax their YouTube restrictions 

NOTE: changes to YouTube filtering policies may take up to 25 minutes to take effect.  If you are at all concerned try rebooting the device after you’ve made changes.

Actions to resolve for schools:

• Check your School Community Platform settings and relax them by allowing Mature and uncategorised YouTube content

• Get the student to log into their G Suite account if they’ve been logged out

• Get the student to try watching the video in another browser e.g. IE, Safari, Firefox, Edge

• Approve the video or channel for viewing

• Relax the YouTube restriction settings for the group the student belongs to in the G Suite Management Console

NOTE: changes to YouTube filtering policies may take up to 25 minutes to take effect.  If you are at all concerned try rebooting the device after you’ve made changes.

My issue still isn’t resolved, what do I do next?

For more information you can read our YouTube Restrictions feature guide.  It has a number of FAQs and links to how to guides that may help you with what you need to do.

Alternatively you can contact our support team for help.  

Please ensure that you include the following information in your request:

• Account email

• Child’s name

• Devices impacted

• Time of issue

• Description of the issue