How to watch more than 30 Netflix documentaries, including Our Planet, for free

Apr. 20, 2020 08:45AM EST

With widespread school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic forcing millions of children to stay home, Netflix has offered a helping educational hand.

The streaming giant has uploaded over 30 of its original documentaries to YouTube, where they can be viewed in full for free.

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There are 34 episodes in all, including the entirety of "Our Planet," the nature series narrated by David Attenborough. The free playlist also includes the "Explained" mini documentary series, eight episodes of Netflix's beautiful "Abstract," five episodes of the "Babies," and "13th," an examination of the U.S. prison system.

Netflix already allowed teachers to show its content to classrooms for free (as long as they have their own account), but with many schools now closed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, this trove of content is now available for kids to watch as part of their home schooling.

Our Planet is available in full and for free on YouTubeNetflix

The company said: "For many years, Netflix has allowed teachers to screen documentaries in their classrooms. However, this isn't possible with schools closed. So at their request, we have made a selection of our documentary features and series available on our YouTube channel."

Although it has almost 14 million subscribers, the YouTube channel is mostly used to air trailers for upcoming Netflix content, rather than whole episodes. Naturally, you are normally supposed to pay a subscription for that.

Netflix added: "Each title also has educational resources available, which can be used by both students and teachers - and we'll be doing Q&As with some of the creators behind these projects so that students can hear from them firsthand. We hope this will, in a small way, help teachers around the world."

While normally available in Ultra HD through Netflix itself, the YouTube content is limited to 1080p Full HD.

Parents or teachers are reminded to check the content description of each episode before showing them, as some contain scenes that are inappropriate for younger children.

The full list of available content is:

Our Planet (eight episodes)
Explained (seven episodes)
Abstract (eight episodes)
Babies (five episodes)
Chasing Coral
13th
Knock Down The House
Period. End of Sentence
The White Helmets
Zion

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