Monitoring Videos in School Manager FAQ

How do I find the type of content in the videos?

You can often identify the video topics by looking at the other websites visited in the User Journey Report around when the video was viewed. The User Journey Report is beneficial because it consolidates the Timeline, Searches, Videos, and Red Flags into one report. You can see a broad view of the student’s activities, including blocked and allowed activities.

If you need more details, you can ask your IT support to run an Advanced Search and email you the results. Your IT support needs the Username, date range, and Categories of activity you are investigating when you ask for the report. Your IT support can email you a CSV file with the results. You can open the Advanced Search results in a spreadsheet to view, sort, and find events.

What are the common categories for video content?

Arts and Entertainment, News, and Mature and Explicit categories often contain video content. Video content is usually embedded in the web pages or viewed in an app from one of these categories.

You can narrow your search results by using the subcategories of Art and Entertainment, including:

• Cartoons and Manga
• Sports
• Streaming Media
• Movie and Film
• Celebrity
• Music and Audio 

What if I don’t recognize the app or website?

You can search the Apps & Game Reviews in your school’s online safety “Hub” if you do not recognize the app or website in the report results. The Hub explains the app or website, the associated risks, and recommendations to make it safer for students.

If your school did not opt in to an online safety Hub, go to a search engine and type “what is,” followed by a space and the web address or app name. The results usually include the software developer’s page and reviews of the app or website.

The Hub is customized for your school. Contact Linewize Support if you do not know the web address of your school's Hub.

If School Manager blocks the search term or website because it violates your filtering policies, look for the Policy Name, Rule Type, and Application/Category for information about the blocked content.

Can School Manager block streaming video and live broadcasts?

Yes. School Manager can block live streaming services. However, we recommend your IT support block specific streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu if your school uses YouTube for educational purposes. A Streaming Media filtering policy can block YouTube because YouTube is in the Steaming Media Category of Arts and Entertainment. Your IT support can contact Linewize Support for help setting up complex Filtering Using Themes, Categories, and Signatures.

Can I get alerts when a user accesses video content?

School Manager can only email you when the user is blocked from accessing video content. You can use the Daily Alert Digest, which contains the top 10 blocked video attempts from the previous day. Or, ask for real-time Filtering Alerts containing one notification each time the specified content is blocked.

For the Daily Digest and the Filtering Alerts email, your IT support selects the filtering policy related to the categories of video content you need to be alerted to. Your IT support can set up Filtering Alerts for an individual user or small group.

School Manager will send you a maximum of 50 emails per day. We recommend you manage real-time alerts with an inbox rule to handle many messages. When you no longer need an email alert, ask your IT support to turn off the email reports and alerts.

What can I do if an inappropriate video is not blocked?

Talk to your IT support about your School Manager's Safe Search settings for YouTube. Your IT support can set Strict or Moderate restrictions to omit mature content from your students’ YouTube searches and video recommendations.

You can verify the student’s device is using Safe Search by going to https://www.youtube.com/check_content_restrictions in a web browser on their computer or tablet.

Sometimes, Safe Search or filtering policies cannot block an inappropriate video because the video publisher has masked their content with common words or intentionally misled YouTube’s automated color-matching algorithm with adult content in a similar pattern to an allowed category.

For example, publishers use the double meaning of everyday words (like commando) or activities (like yoga) to evade YouTube’s Child safety policy. You can report the creator, channel, or video to YouTube when the publisher violates YouTube's content restrictions.