# Youtube Channel Monitor

After a lot of struggles with the Family Link setup (see my earlier posts) I decided to build my own channel monitor.

I wanted a simpler way for parents to monitor whether their child's YouTube channel has public videos. This tool, deployed in my ACA environment, sends an email the moment a video is made public on a monitored channel.

The idea is simple: the parent gets an email alert as soon as a public video appears. That makes it a lightweight safety check without needing to manually inspect the channel.

What makes this project interesting is the mix of technologies behind it:

- Google YouTube API to inspect the channel and detect public videos.
- Azure Container Apps Job to run the check as a scheduled background task.
- Azure Communication Services to send the email notification.

I already work with Azure, so that side was familiar. What made this especially interesting was the Google integration and the fact that I hadn't used Azure Communication Services before. It turned into both a practical tool and a good learning project.

The goal was to build something small, reliable, and genuinely useful.

![Channel monitor job log screenshot](https://images.koorevaar.com/linkedin-import/youtube-channel-monitor.jpg)

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*Co-authored with Claude.*

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