US blocks soldiers from websites

By Rob Watson
BBC defence and security correspondent




Soldiers use the sites to keep in touch with loved ones

The US military is to block troops from using YouTube and MySpace and 11 other popular websites for sharing photos, video clips and messages.

The decision could stop thousands of soldiers from communicating with friends and loved ones.

For many US soldiers serving overseas YouTube and other similar websites are a popular way of keeping in touch.

But according to US reports, the Pentagon has decided to block access to such sites for technical reasons.

Security concerns

It says accessing and sending video across the internet takes up a lot of bandwidth and slows down the military's computer system.

And not surprisingly perhaps, there are also security concerns.

The cyberspace battle space was not one that we were particularly operating well in


Lt Col Christopher Garver, US Army



US takes Iraq war to YouTube


The block on accessing such websites will not affect those soldiers with their own personal computers - though of course they are few and far between in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a certain irony to the Pentagon's reported decision.

It only recently started posting its own videos on YouTube showing soldiers in action in Iraq in a move designed to reach out to a younger audience and to show the successes of the US military.

The restriction only applies to government-owned computers, because of the bandwidth drain that they are experiencing; it does not apply to personally owned computers.