Blurring Tools in YouTube

There are times where you want to blur or block out part of a video that you want to upload.  I create a lot of videos for students and other teachers, and sometimes find that there is something on my screen that I want to blur so I do not share an email address or some piece of personal information.  I have done this before using iMovie by just adding a box over the screen but this does not work well when the object, or area, moves.  This also does not work well if you just want a simple blurring option if you are recording a learning environment and need to blur out some student faces.

YouTube has a tool in its Enhancements area, for videos that you have uploaded, that will allow you to do this easily.  You can quickly blur all faces or use the custom blurring tool to select the regions you want to blur.  The nice thing about the custom blurring tool is that it will follow the region you select, meaning that if you select a face and that face moves around the screen, it will continue to be blurred.  You can even select how long you want that area to be blurred so you can hide a piece of information for a short time and reveal it later, I am sure there are some times this will be helpful.

Watch the video below to see how to get started.