Comments about ‘BYU unblocks on-campus access to YouTube’

cats and dogs living together --- it's mass hysteria!

This is a great move by the school, in that it will allow students access to some very fine tutorials on tools that are public domain, and an assortment of other training materials, and the chance to promote Mormonism from the campus. All are great plusses.

I hope the students will be able to show restraint and will not abuse this privilege by being lured in to the obvious seemy underbelly of Youtube which is fixated on shirtless confessions of anything deviant and perverse, and the prolific tendency to use profanity and crude humor. I hate how Youtube will list "popular" links at the bottom of even the most spiritual video most of which are highly innappropriate for most sensible human beings.

BYU should not exclude content based on censorship but out of a moral duty to the majority. BYU students agree to an honor code when they attend and why in the world would BYU knowingly allow this trash onto their campus, thus providing a chance that the students will stumble on something inappropriate? I cannot fathom this move. Morals are constant and do/should not change based on changing societal norms. This shows that the University is holding too closely to the arms length distance from society at all times. Get it right and continue to block this site and others like it (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, other time-wasters)

"The educational and informational materials now available"?

Yeah, where else would a BYU student go to learn vital career skills, such as how to make fountains out of Diet Coke and Mentos? Or if an iPhone can be ground up by a blender? Or that you can remix Shamwow infomercials into club tunes?

Don't get me wrong - unblocking youtube was the right thing to do. But the fact that they're doing it for the "educational materials" tells you something about the level of education you're going to get at BYU.

Got to love that "free agency" - err. you are free to choose what we let you do....hmmm sounds fishy.

Good job China - uh BYU.

Got to protect those Children!

Wow that BYU college crowd must be feeling like big kids now, how exciting! Maybe next they'll be able to think for themselves or even be allowed to consume sugar!!

So much for teaching correct principles, and self-governance. "Block it! Wait...what's that? We can use it to get our message out? Umm un-block it in a couple years."

It was blocked in part because the servers required so much to carry it. Get the facts you waaah-waaahs. How far is it to your apartment or dorm? I personally think they should block Facebook and MySpace too. They don't need to "pay" for your social time. It's time to grow up kiddies!!!

I'm a big kid now! Look mommy!

This decision comes out around the same time the LDS church makes their own channel and you say it was a server issue...Nice try.

Take a look KSL - you can do it too!!! start showing Saturday Night Live again and stop making decisions for us.

Unreal... Just when I think this place can't get any stranger...

Has anyone here heard of the US Constitution and freedom of Speech..wow...Did we forget about this too. Or is the LDS church trying to take that away as well.

BYU is a private university. No one ASKED you to be here. Therefore, you have to adhere to their rules. There was no question of freedom of speech. No question of if we are or are not thinking for ourselves. If you don't like it, don't be here and give the spot to someone else who wants to. I agree that saying it's for "educational" purposes is a little crazy, but still. Stop complaining!

Hello. BYU is a private school. A private religious school. The LDS church is paying for its existence, so yes, they have the right to do whatever they please with their money on their campus. When youtube first came out, it was nothing but a site for people to post personal videos. Now the White house posts news on youtube, CNN streams to youtube, as well as news from around the world. Additionally, the structure of youtube has changed and it is no longer downed by viruses, and most of the videos on there are no longer social spoofs like back when it first came out. BYU has blocked myspace for the same reasons, the dangers it poses to students who put too much info out and the potential for viruses it has. Facebook never had such problems, and it was never blocked. Now that myspace has tightened up security, who knows, maybe it will come of the block list eventually. BYU does its best to make sure its students don't run into things on the internet that they shouldn't use school computers for, like porn. So do many other private and public schools, for that matter.

BYU is a private university, and they allow students FREE internet access on-campus, which is the only place the filtering applies. Students are free to visit whatever site they want to on non-BYU networks, so BYU isn't (and wasn't) limiting their freedom in any way. YouTube is predominantly a colossal waste of time popular among students, and video consumes lots of bandwidth. I'd sooner the university use the bandwidth they pay for in the name of education, rather than entertainment. People who complain(ed) about the lack of YouTube should consider their priorities and stop whining about being deprived of "entitlements" I agree that the same goes for Facebook and MySpace. I don't think anyone should expect ANY university to spend resources for something that essentially encourages students to waste time. Speaking of "I'm a big kid now"... It's not so hard to stop whining and pay for your own internet connection, or do without. Sheesh....

Funny thing is,

while the liberals here carp about the need here for free speech,

their OTHER HAND is working to shut down conservative and religious speech.

I don't believe people are attacking their power as a private university. I think they are attacking their credentials a place of "higher learning."

Although I am a student at a Bible College back east, I can share the views of both sides of this issue. Youtube gives one access to some nasty stuff, as does Myspace, and other websites. BYU's decision to unblock Youtube may cause some students to abuse it and go too far....but then, these same students may have already done so in other areas. It comes down to a matter of trust. By and large, most students will abide by the Honor Code and avoid Youtube anyway, or else only use it for it's better, higher purposes. To those who do not abide by the honor code, blocking is irrelevant - they would find a way to do the less honorable thing anyway. All of the major social networking sites, including Youtube, Myspace, and Facebook, are available on this Bible college campus, for better or for worse. I, for my own part have chosen to block Youtube and Myspace from my own computer via Covenant Eyes filter. Those who, by choice, abuse the internet in any way, will sooner or later suffer the consequences.