In response to popular demand from parents, we are happy to announce the rollout of YouTube filtering for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is available right now for Mobicip.com Premium users, and will be available at High School level for others in a couple of days.
UPDATE: We found that this feature doesn't really allow filtered access to YouTube. It turns out that the only mechanism to play YouTube videos is through the YouTube application itself. So if the YouTube app is disabled (following the instructions below), and Mobicip provides filtered access to YouTube.com, none of the videos will be playable. We are working on finding a workaround for this, in case Apple doesn't support Flash soon. Please bear with us as we find a solution that works. Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE: The issue mentioned above has now been resolved. Please follow the instructions below to setup filtered access to YouTube through the Mobicip browser.
Simply disable the default YouTube application using the Restrictions feature, setup Mobicip Safe Browser as the default method to access YouTube, and unblock the YouTube category (Premium users only).
Disable YouTube on iPhone or iPod Touch
- From the home screen, select Settings > General.
- Select Restrictions
- Enter a 4-digit passcode. Make sure you remember this passcode, in case you need to change these settings later on.
- You will see the restrictions screen. Set Safari, YouTube, and Installing Apps to OFF on this screen.
Setup Mobicip Safe Browser
Mobicip™ offers a best-selling alternate browser for Safari that enables parental controls on your child's iPhone or iPod Touch. It is simple to setup and works anytime anywhere! The Mobicip Safe Browser is protected by a mobicip.com account setup by the parent.
- From the home screen on the device, touch the App Store icon.
- Touch the search tab, and search for "mobicip"
- Select the Mobicip Safe Browser from the search results.
- Touch the price button, it will turn into BUY NOW. Touch this button and enter your iTunes username and password.
NOTE: Please make sure you purchase the app from the iTunes account that will be synced with the device. Your child may have a separate iTunes account to which the device is synced. Please purchase through that account instead of yours. If you have already purchased the app from your account, call iTunes Customer Support and they can cancel and refund the purchase.
- One purchased, the app will be installed on your screen.
- When installation is done, touch the Mobicip icon to launch the app.
- If you don't have a Mobicip.com account already, touch the Create New Account button.
- Once the account is created, login into the app. You should see the browser open up like this.
Allow YouTube Category using Mobicip.com Premium
If you haven't already, visit www.mobicip.com from your PC to upgrade to the Mobicip.com Premium web application. Mobicip.com Premium is a web-based parental control application that can be accessed from any browser. The Premium application allows you to setup custom Internet filtering settings and policy, and monitor Internet usage on the iPhone and iPod Touch that uses Mobicip as the primary browser.
To allow the YouTube category, select Settings > Categories > YouTube. Uncheck the YouTube categories that you wish to allow and save the settings.
Your child can now access YouTube only through Mobicip Safe Browser, and YouTube in general will be accessible, but inappropriate content alone will be blocked. We would love to hear your feedback on this feature. Please post your thoughts and comments on the forum or contact us.
Comments
11 comments postedWhy, when middle school is selected, are videos by DisneyPixar and DisneyMovieTrailers (for example) blocked?
We are sorry for the trouble you are having. As you may already know, filtering video websites like Youtube is very challenging due to the very less or almost no descriptive content on the video pages themselves. Our intent here at Mobicip is to be on the over-protective end and so, you may find even some safe videos were blocked.
However, when we tried to reproduce your issue at our end, we found that almost all videos for the Youtube search 'DisneyPixar' and 'DisneyMovieTrailers' were allowed by Mobicip at Middle School level. Please note that the Elemetary level is the most restrictive one among the three levels. In case you recently changed the filtering level from elementary to Middle School, then it may take up to 30-45 mins for this change to take effect on the device. So, we suggest that you give it a try one more time and check if it works fine now.
If the problem still persists, please let us know and we will investigate further asap.
Your directions above say, "Your child can now access YouTube only through Mobicip Safe Browser..."
How is a child to access YouTube? It's not in the browser directory. You've got Wikipedia and Google, but no YouTube. Please make it more simple.
Thanks for the suggestion. We will look into adding YouTube as a suggested bookmark in the Mobicip browser. Of course access to YouTube will be filtered regardless.
Even without the bookmark, you can visit YouTube by simply typing in youtube.com in the URL bar.
Mobicip Support
I followed the instructions, can access YouTube through Mobicip, but can NOT watch any videos!?
Adobe Acrobat Upgrade Required" Message, but IPod will not allow download of Adobe Products. I can view YouTube Videos on IPod through Safari. What's up Mobicip?
It does not seem to matter whether the YouTube app is enabled or disabled on the iPod. Either way YouTube videos are not viewable but display the error noted by the previous poster. They will play using m.YouTube.com but this seems to bypass mobicip Filtering and the YouTube safe mode is not effective for the mobile version currently according to the info on the YouTube site. Please clarify the current status of YouTube filtering with respect to using mobicip.
The instructions to setup YouTube filtering still holds with one small change. When you login at www.mobicip.com and select Settings > Categories, you will see a new YouTube category with several sub-categories below it. You will need to allow one or more of these sub-categories to be able to access YouTube through Mobicip.
By default, when you access YouTube.com from the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, it will be automatically redirected to m.youtube.com. Although safe search may not be enabled on this site, Mobicip will enforce safe search and also filter the site dynamically based on the title, description and meta tags associated with the video. You will notice that some videos on this site are already blocked and you should see a video named "Blocked by Mobicip" in the position of these blocked videos.
Please let us know if YouTube filtering doesn't even after you follow the steps outlined in this tutorial. We will be happy to troubleshoot the problem or assist you further.
I have unchecked all the youtube categories, but the site remains blocked on both my children's devices?
Can you please check and make sure that you have un-checked the sub-category 'Youtube' under the category 'Entertainment'? In addition to enabling the sub-categories under the category 'Youtube', you need to enable the main Youtube category as well. Please follow the instructions in this tutorial to set up Youtube filtering on Mobicip.
How to Setup Mobicip to Filter YouTube on the iPhone & iPod touch (iOS4 Edition)
Please note that it may take up to 30 minutes for the changes you made on the web monitor to reflect on the device. If you still cannot access Youtube, please contact Mobicip Support and they will investigate the issue asap.
I followed the directions, and unchecked YouTube under Entertainment. Still does not work. Could it be that I have the level set on Middle School?
We are sorry that your issue has not been resolved yet. Youtube is blocked at the middle school by default, but once you un-checked the 'Youtube' category on the Categories page, you should be able to access it. Please note that it may take 30-45 minutes for the changes you made on the web monitor to reflect on the device. Please try youtube.com one more time and you should be able to access it. If the problem persists, please send an email to Mobicip Support with your registered Mobicip email id and we will investigate further asap.
Mobicip Support