Best parental controls for YouTube

How to restrict YouTube for children

Restricted Mode. Google’s families help says Restricted Mode is one way to filter out potentially mature content, including for a child who is old enough to manage their own account. From the Family Link app, the path on that page is: select your child, open the YouTube controls, and turn Restricted Mode on or off. Restricted Mode is still YouTube, with YouTube’s recommendations underneath a filter.

A supervised kid account. The same families article says a supervised account lets you choose a content level (Older kids, Teens, or Older teens), pause watch or search history, and manage screen time through Family Link. YouTube’s help on blocking channels says a parent signed in with the linked parent account can block a specific channel for a child. Blocking one channel does not block reuploads on a different channel. Google also says some supervised settings change once a child reaches 13, or the age that applies where you live.

Turn off autoplay. YouTube’s YouTube Kids parental-controls page says you can disable autoplay for a child from the YouTube app: You, Settings, Family Center, the child, then switch Disable autoplay on. The child cannot turn autoplay back on while that switch is on.

Block YouTube Shorts for a supervised teen. YouTube’s Family Center page for teen supervision describes a daily Shorts feed limit: Family Center, the child, Time management, then the daily Shorts feed limit. When the limit is reached, YouTube says the Shorts feed stops scrolling for the rest of the day. That page is about supervised teens. The younger supervised-account pages checked for this guide describe content levels, channel blocking, and autoplay, and do not describe that same Shorts limit.

Those controls follow the Google account and the device where they are turned on. A different profile, a signed-out browser, or a friend’s tablet is outside them.

Approval-based apps

These products were read on their own sites on November 2, 2026. Prices change. Where a site did not show a number, this page does not guess one.

WatchSafe. Parents approve channels, playlists, or single videos, and nothing else plays. Every video is checked against your rules before it plays. There are no recommendations and no Shorts feed. Autoplay is off by default, and when a parent turns it on it only plays videos they approved. Time limits, schedules, and a pause button are included, along with hundreds of pre-curated channels you still have to approve. Control+ is $6.99 a month per family, or $69.99 a year, after a 14-day free trial, and it includes unlimited children. On Control+ you can connect your family's YouTube account, including more than one parent account and a YouTube Premium connection, import playlists from YouTube, and use learning goals, educational tracking, achievement badges, time banking, weekly budgets, break reminders, real-time email alerts, and viewing analytics and reports. Control is the starter plan at $4.99 a month per family. It is built for Christian and values-minded families, and for other parents who want the same fence, including special-needs families. Web, iOS, and Android.

WhitelistVideo (whitelist.video) describes a whitelist that blocks YouTube content by default so only parent-approved channels play. Its site lists Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Android TV, with enforcement tied to the device’s parent controls. A curated-feed mode is described as a grid of parent-approved videos with no search, no recommendations, and no YouTube interface. Billing is per child. The billing page lists Basic at $6.99 per child per month ($69.99 a year) and Premium at $14.99 per child per month ($119.99 a year). Playlists are marked as a Premium feature. A lifetime option is listed at $299 for up to 5 children. New accounts get a 2-hour test period, not a multi-day trial.

Kivvie (kivvie.app/pricing) is a YouTube whitelist. The pricing page lists a free plan with 1 child, 5 approved channels, 3 channel changes a month, no Shorts feed or comments, on web and mobile. Paid plans are $8.99 a month or $89 a year for unlimited child profiles, unlimited channels, and custom playlists of individual videos. One parent subscription covers every child. A machine-readable pricing.txt file on the same site still showed $4.99 a month when this page was written. The page a parent sees says $8.99, so that is the figure to trust until Kivvie’s site agrees with itself.

Streamu (streamu.app) says parents whitelist YouTube channels and everything else is blocked. The site says there is no algorithm, no autoplay, and no endless scroll, with up to four child profiles, on iOS and Android. The same homepage shows two prices: $9.99 a month in the plan summary, and £6.99 a month or £69.99 a year in the FAQ. Confirm the number at signup. This guide reports both figures and does not choose between them.

Visor (gotvisor.com) is an iOS app where parents approve or remove channels and children can request new ones. The homepage says there are no Shorts. The FAQ says you can try Visor for free and that premium features may require a subscription, and that Android is planned. The public pages checked did not list a monthly dollar price, so none is repeated here.

Jellies (jelliesapp.com) is not a YouTube player. It is a separate library of videos. The site says a person watches each video before it can be offered, parents approve shelves and individual videos, Kid Mode shows only those shelves, there is no recommendation engine and no ads, and parents can set a daily limit. The homepage and terms say the price is shown before you pay. They did not print a dollar amount on the pages checked, so this guide does not quote one. An older press write-up is not treated as the current price.