Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

maekitsafe.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 34 posts

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#21

Post by xrd »

cookiengineer wrote: post #9
e-clinton wrote: post #5

Interesting idea, but I’d take it a step further. I want to control exactly what videos the kids can watch, not just the channel.

Minitube is pretty great, and uses MPV (and therefore yt-dlp) behind the scenes. It has filters that are really neat, and is very minimalistic. I personally use it, too, to avoid distracting myself and to actively search for everything I consume. [1] https://flavio.tordini.org/minitube

Does it have parental controls, or a way of at least seeing what the kids are watching? I can't tell from looking at that page.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#22

Post by deng »

skinner927 wrote: post #18
deng wrote: post #15

This is nice. It's a disgrace that Youtube does not have the option to allow only certain channels for a kids' account, but of course it brings Google more money to trap kids in endless video garbage, so here we are. I made a similar setup for my kids, but simply locally using Freetube ( https://freetubeapp.io/ ).

I can manually curate YouTube kids. There’s no suggestions outside the curated channels and auto play can be disabled. What’s the problem?

Maybe things have improved with the YouTube Kids app. Previously, I was not able to manually chose channels that were fine to watch, and there was still a ton of trash there, although Google claims it is manually curated.

The main problem is when children get older and YouTube Kids is simply not a good fit anymore (my children refer to it as "Baby Youtube"). The way I remember it, I would consider the content to be applicable for children up to maybe 6 or 7 years? Until that age, I did at least casually monitor what my children watched anyway and didn't just leave them alone with a tablet.

The regular Youtube has a "content setting" for parents with categories like "9+" and "13+", but when I actually tried this, these categories were an absolute joke and still contained a ton of adult content, especially all the influencer gaming grifts, the right-wing "manosphere" bullshit, and so on. It is obvious that some AI does the filtering here, and we all know how well that works.

How do you set up YouTube in a way that only an explicit list of channels can be watched, without the possibility to trivially circumvent this by simply opening a browser and going to youtube.com directly without being logged in?

Freetube allows me to

- set up a list of channels that are OK

- disable the search box

- set up a PIN so that the configuration cannot be changed.

The installed browser is simply using a different filtered DNS and will not be able to connect to youtube.com directly.

This also has the advantage that I don't even need a Google account for anything.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#23

Post by beechwood »

skinner927 wrote: post #18
deng wrote: post #15

This is nice. It's a disgrace that Youtube does not have the option to allow only certain channels for a kids' account, but of course it brings Google more money to trap kids in endless video garbage, so here we are. I made a similar setup for my kids, but simply locally using Freetube ( https://freetubeapp.io/ ).

I can manually curate YouTube kids. There’s no suggestions outside the curated channels and auto play can be disabled. What’s the problem?

Not all channels my kids watch are on YouTube kids.

They watch Minecraft building channels.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#24

Post by smusamashah »

xrd wrote: post #20
skinner927 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can manually curate YouTube kids. There’s no suggestions outside the curated channels and auto play can be disabled. What’s the problem?

Can you share the process? I did not know this either.

When you setup YouTube kids app, it has an option to allow only the shared/whitelisted/curated content. Don't remember the exact terminology.

Then from your main account, go to a channel, click three dots -> Share with children -> Share. Can do the same with a single video too.

It can be a painful process though. If you want to unshare, you have to find that video and repeat the process. Or unshare it in the youtube kids android app by logging in as a parent first.

Would have been nice if i could share a play list. That way I would only have to modify that play list to add/remove a video.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#25

Post by beechwood »

njitram wrote: post #13

this looks like youtube kids from youtube itself, what are the differences between the two? I use youtube kids for my own kids on our iPads, which works somewhat fine, a bit clunky to add channels and to use it for offline watching though.

YouTube kids doesn't have the channels they watch. AFAIK the creator has to designate their videos as kid friendly. Not all creators do that.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#26

Post by smusamashah »

deng wrote: post #22
skinner927 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can manually curate YouTube kids. There’s no suggestions outside the curated channels and auto play can be disabled. What’s the problem?

Maybe things have improved with the YouTube Kids app. Previously, I was not able to manually chose channels that were fine to watch, and there was still a ton of trash there, although Google claims it is manually curated. The main problem is when children get older and YouTube Kids is simply not a good fit anymore (my children refer to it as "Baby Youtube"). The way I remember it, I would consider the content to be a…

When you setup youtube kids, select the first option of minimum age I think. That does not have a search box and only videos/channels shared by you can be seen.

Process is still somewhat ass though. But its better than giving full search and recommendations access.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#27

Post by beechwood »

xrd wrote: post #21
cookiengineer wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minitube is pretty great, and uses MPV (and therefore yt-dlp) behind the scenes. It has filters that are really neat, and is very minimalistic. I personally use it, too, to avoid distracting myself and to actively search for everything I consume. [1] https://flavio.tordini.org/minitube

Does it have parental controls, or a way of at least seeing what the kids are watching? I can't tell from looking at that page.

the idea is that you trust the channel that you add. so assuming every video on that channel is safe....

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#28

Post by smusamashah »

On YouTube kids app you can do "Approved content only" such that only channels/videos allowed/shared by you will be visible. This will be the kids profile under your own account. Found the reddit thread that explains this process.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Parenting/comments/179fqem/how_the_...

I have YouTube kids setup TV for my 3yo with videos from Vooks, Stella and Same, Guess How Much I love you etc. Also using Projectivity Launcher that has parental controls which means he can't just pick remote and launch the app whenever + an alarm clock app to limit watch time. It's an OK setup so far.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#29

Post by beechwood »

smusamashah wrote: post #28

On YouTube kids app you can do "Approved content only" such that only channels/videos allowed/shared by you will be visible. This will be the kids profile under your own account. Found the reddit thread that explains this process. https://www.reddit.com/r/Parenting/comments/179fqem/how_the_... I have YouTube kids setup TV for my 3yo with videos from Vooks, Stella and Same, Guess How Much I love you etc. Also using Pr…

YouTube kids does not have Minecraft building channels, at least not ones that my kids watch. That's why I created this.

Re: Show HN: I tried making YouTube safer for my kids

#30

Post by deng »

smusamashah wrote: post #26
deng wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe things have improved with the YouTube Kids app. Previously, I was not able to manually chose channels that were fine to watch, and there was still a ton of trash there, although Google claims it is manually curated. The main problem is when children get older and YouTube Kids is simply not a good fit anymore (my children refer to it as "Baby Youtube"). The way I remember it, I would consider the content to be a…

When you setup youtube kids, select the first option of minimum age I think. That does not have a search box and only videos/channels shared by you can be seen. Process is still somewhat ass though. But its better than giving full search and recommendations access.

OK, but is Youtube Kids limited to the official "approved-for-kids" channels (so mainly Peppa Pig and co)? Or can I also allow arbitrary channels for older kids that are only available on Youtube proper?
Post reply on HN