Brigham Young University has lifted its ban on campus access to YouTube and will hold students at the Mormon university morally responsible for how they use the video-sharing Web site.
Because of the increasing amount of educational material available on YouTube, BYU is permitting access from on-campus computers for the first time, said university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins.
"We do block other sites (and have) filters as many institutions and companies do," she said. "They wouldn't provide any educational value. They would be in violation of the honor code as well."
Without specific rules for YouTube, students must nonetheless remain compliant with the school's honor code, which supports the mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It prohibits "involvement with gambling; pornographic, erotic, or indecent material; disorderly, obscene, or indecent conduct or expressions."
The university's software filters out most of this content, but where the technology falls short, BYU has encouraged students to use the tenets of their faith to avoid objectionable material online.
From social-networking sites to blogging, BYU's online guide encourages its students to develop "internal filters" against content that is not "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy," but "evil."
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