YouTube has quietly become the backbone of US classrooms

YouTube has quietly become a central tool in American classrooms, appearing on nearly every school device — but it was never built for that role. Internal Google documents show the company saw schools as a way to close a weekday viewing gap, even while its own research flagged inappropriate content, addictive videos, and weakened attention spans. Some districts are now blocking YouTube entirely after discovering students lose up to 31 school days annually to distracted screen time.