To YouTube or not?

In my role as Instructional Technology Director for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, I end up in a regular conversation/debate about why we block YouTube in our schools. My usual argument involves the following points:

• YouTube was not designed for education and therefore has very little regulation
• Although there are some fantastic videos available, the bad outweigh the good.
• Most educational videos are being offered on both YouTube and Teacher Tube (which we do not block).
• Although we keep it blocked in the buildings, we teach those interested how to download videos from YouTube at home in order to bring them in for lessons.

I must admit that I am a YouTube junkie. In fact, I have my own channel where videos of my son are posted (he will be a rock star...mark my words). This debate is something I struggle each time I am involved.

It does make me curious though...If you read my blog, what does your system do? How do you think this should be handled in order to keep children safe and be compliant with CIPA?