It was just a regular Tuesday in early January. The team at #SocialSchool4EDU was excited to have school back in session after the long Christmas break. Posting photos, sharing videos, monitoring comments – just a typical day.
Until we got the e-mail.
Just a heads up; when you watch the new video on the website it shows a less-than-full-dressed person in an ad type thing at the end. Is this something the website people can fix? Those that talked to me thought perhaps we didn’t want this to be on there with a PBIS video. Others mentioned it to me as well and there are also some distasteful things that I didn’t see but others did as well with some inappropriate things said sexually. Ugh. Sorry!
Early on January 5, we had shared a video on the Durand School District page. It was a fun, lighthearted video showing what teachers do at school while the kids are not there. The teachers were breaking all the rules – roller skating down the halls, throwing trash on the floor, and putting their feet up on their desk. All of the things kids are told NOT to do.
The video snippets were pieced together with a song of “Bad to the Bone” playing in the background. All of this would have been fine, but the issue came in the title of the file and video. We had uploaded the video onto YouTube. The name of the video was “Teachers Behaving Badly.”
When we received the e-mail above, we quickly took the video down, even though it had already reached over 4,000 people.
So what happened?
When a copyrighted song is used on a video, you can’t upload it directly to Facebook. However, YouTube allows you to do it, with the understanding that ads can be played on the video while it is running. Somehow the ad proceeds are directed back to the owners of the music copyright.
YouTube selects the type of ads based on the title and description of the video. Because we used the title “Teachers Behaving Badly,” there was obviously some implication of an inappropriate, slightly perverse context of the video. Hence the ads the teachers saw that prompted the e-mail.
Lesson for all
Be careful what you use for titles of your YouTube videos. Once you upload them, watch the video from a different account and monitor the types of ads that are being displayed. It was an honest mistake that we had made, but the ads shown are going to reflect your school district.
I have heard of a similar issue from a Minnesota Christian school, and I’m sure it has happened to others before as well.
The next day we were able to rename the original file to “Teachers Having Fun While the Kids are Gone.” No more inappropriate advertisements or awkward video suggestions with that one. Problem solved and then we reached another 3,000 plus folks with the video. Check it out here:
Was this article helpful?
If you work in a school setting with social media, we need to connect! Sign up for our weekly Social Bulletin Board where we share advice, training, video tips, upcoming events, and more. It’s all about celebrating your students and staff.
Sign up here for our weekly newsletter.
