AIBU to think parents will break the social media rules for summerborn children’s GCSE revision?

[SummerAutumnborn]

So as a parent of a September born child my child will be able to access YouTube educational videos before their GCSEs start. Some of these resources are excellent.

Their best friend (August born) will not be able to access any videos before the GCSEs start unless their parents break the rules.

At A-Level my child will have unlimited access their best friend won’t - a problem for kids who access sports clubs in the evening and want to revise before bed.

Summer borns have an educational disadvantage anyway - will this widen the gap further? Here is a BBC article from a few years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23435439

Am I being unreasonable thinking parents who agree with the SM ban will break the rules if it disadvantages their summer born child?

Out of interest for those of you who do support the social media ban are you going to say to your child that they cannot access exam resources on YouTube and X even if they are better than school and BBC resources? Or when it comes to an educational advantage will you find it acceptable to break the rules and allow access?

I disagree with the ban btw so would have no issue if it affected my child.

The places that do a lot of these videos will move them off YouTube to elsewhere.

There’s plenty of places where GCSE revision tools can be found that are not in social media.

You can revise for GCSEs without YouTube …. There are other websites and paper & pen worked for 100s of years.

And if the material is better on YouTube/TikTok? At present we have no idea what will happen but assuming the best material is on YouTube - which I believe it currently is (the bbc is rubbish in comparison).

Teacher here. Videos aren't very good for revision.

Yeah cos YouTube is absolutely the only resource available for revision

Just let them watch videos with your log in.
I swear some people on here think it will be illegal for their child's eyes to catch a glimpse of SM. They just wont be allowed their own login.

Oh they’ve really managed to pull the wool over your eyes haven’t they?

Exactly this

You won’t go to prison if you let them watch educational videos on YouTube. It just means they won’t have unfettered access to other things on YouTube.

My DC both swore by YT content for their GCSEs. They said it was explained in a way which really helped their way of thinking which is complicated by dyslexia. I’d would be a huge shame if children couldn’t access them.

Why do schools use it as a recourse then? They’ll have to have school log ins for it, like they do with educational apps.

The material they need will not be TikTok or YouTube based and anything that is will be viewable on a parents access and you can just monitor that usage yourself

I’d be really surprised if YouTube revision videos actually confer a statistically significant competitive advantage in exams. I suspect the negative effects on attention span would more than even the playing field!

I have two summer born children and I think the fact they will potentially have 11 months more social-media-free studying and revision time than their peers is a massive positive. Nothing to stop me showing them videos on YouTube if it was actually a brilliant educational resource, but it is not.

Ex maths teacher.

a lot of maths revision stuff has videos as part of the website eg dr frost maths.

some places host the videos on YouTube.

my school has videos that we’ve made on calculator use etc which are internal only.

You’re looking for loopholes. 🙄

There are some brilliant videos on there, for maths at least (don’t know about other subjects).

@XenoBitchbear in mind MN log everything with 101, the other day someone was being told it was illegal to sit in your car in a residential street and the OP should call the police on some guy. No thought given to how this could be policed or not.

Surely they'll just be moved onto the YouTube kids app, which won't be banned?

This ground breaking, child saving measure went from restricting children to adults 'breaking rules' in less than a day. Can't wait to see what the future holds!

Surely they can still watch YouTube videos without signing into an account?

The BBC thinks YouTube is helpful - so much so it has launched a YouTube offering - see this article from May 2026. They suggest it ‘helps things stick’. Is this incorrect? I assume BBC material would still be accessible what if the child finds another YT content creator more useful?

Cerys Griffiths, Head of BBC Bitesize, commented: “Revision has changed, and students are increasingly turning to video and audio to help things stick. Literally, BBC Bitesize’s new YouTube offering is about meeting them there, bringing GCSE subjects to life in a way that feels engaging, memorable and genuinely useful.

www.advanced-television.com/2026/05/06/bbc-launches-literally-youtube-series-for-gcse-students/

Of course they could still watch YouTube.

And I’m sorry no one needs TikTok for GCSEs

Or they’ll just put the vidoes on YouTube kids. Probably makes more sense for them to be on there anyway.

According to Google, kids in Australia easily bypass the You Tube ban by just not signing in. We don’t know how the ban will be implemented here but it’ll probably be similar.