On March 1st, 2025, YouTube was officially banned across most New York schools. Now students are unable to access or use YouTube for any purpose. This was a shock to all New York students, and they are now struggling with this change. YouTube is an extremely useful and necessary resource for all students, and everyone I have spoken to is upset and shocked by YouTubes disappearance. "[Without YouTube] it will be harder for me to do my HISA (highly influential science assessment) because I use YouTube a lot for things like that" says Simone, a 7th grader in New York State, "Plus, if I don't understand something in school, I'll usually have YouTube explain it, so my grades are going to plummet". Similar sentiments are shared by nearly all New York State students, and all of them agree that YouTube should be brought back.

YouTube was banned in New York State schools due to it now violating New York State Law Education Law 2-D. That law was created for the protection of students data. However, YouTube doesn't use any data not already on your Google account, and with school monitored Google accounts, they don't even do that. Most school monitored accounts make it so you're unable to make a YouTube channel, view or make comments, and subscribes and likes don't register with the original creator. YouTube as a platform and as a company is owned by Google which schools rely on. Schools still use Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, Gmail, and more Google properties even when they use the exact same information that YouTube does. The YouTube ban doesn't protect anyone, and is only making school more difficult. Most students use YouTube for studying and projects, and if they don't have that resource, they're going to start suffering academically. And with phones banned in schools, YouTube is often also used for music. "I use YouTube for mainly one thing. Music. I love music. Music is life. I've been raised to love music. It's very important to me. I've made numerous playlists and listened to numerous songs on YouTube with this Chromebook. With phones not allowed in school anymore, my Chromebook is the only way I can listen to music during school and I don't want to lose that. [...] Without that, I don't know what I'm going to do. I love being able to listen to music during study halls, free periods, lunch, and sometimes even classes when I'm done with my work and am allowed to. Now, I can't." Says Sabine, a 9th grader in New York State. When asked, most students agreed completely with her. YouTube was their main source of music which was their main source of concentration. Many students are worried about their grades because they can't focus without music.

YouTube is a necessary part of education, and the ban is only going to cause struggle. Without that resource, grades are likely going to suffer and stress will increase. New York State students are asking for YouTube back, in interest of their grades, their stress, their focus, and everything else.