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Show HN: KidScreen, a finite YouTube shelf chosen by parents(kidscreen.app)
25 points by Tintly 5 hours ago | 22 comments
RileyJames 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’d be in the market for this, but didn’t get enough info to sign up.

My first questions were: - do I need a YouTube account? - do I need a premium YouTube account? - can I use it on my tv? - and more generally, how does it work? (Which should answer all above)

Current solution is: download YouTube videos my son is interested in to Plex, watch them on the tv (or iPad)

I also have YouTube premium, but barely use it.

andreidbr 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Same for me. I also download videos and put them on a USB stick plugged into the TV.

MostlyStable 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

YouTube Kids in theory solves all my problems, the issue is that it's garbage software where the most important features are broken. For example I recently went on a long trip and grabbed the kids tablet. Only to discover after leaving the house, that all the previously downloaded videos were gone, and all the new ones that the app had chosen from among my whitelisted channels had "failed to download", despite having been at home on the wifi for weeks, so without internet connectivity, the app had nothing at all.

As others have pointed out, the things I am looking for in a YouTube kids replacement is quite specific and detailed, and the landing page provides not an iota of evidence that I will get that.

codeulike 25 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Interested in this, but to work on an ipad that has youtube.com blocked via ScreenTime I imagine it probably wont work (unless you unblock youtube.com and the youtube becomes accessible via the browser). Unless they have found a way round this problem?

aspanda 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Hey i'd love to use it but may be add a little more description in the landing page to build confidencee before a parent can signup for the service! That has kept me away from signing up TBH. The premise of the product seems promising. I was thinking of building a whole device for parents to block content on the https traffic level

zikduruqe 2 hours ago | parent [-]

On the webpage - "Learn more in your parent account: About."

So I click About and it asks me to login or create an account.

Instant nope from me.

jzig 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agree with other commenters this needs a better landing page with some screens or a video demo. Especially for a product where building trust with your family would be a necessity.

kbruner 27 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

YouTube Kids already has a whitelist mode. We use it all the time for our 8 year old.

blakesterz 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Looks interesting but I would want some public information about how it works and who is doing it, etc... The complete lack of any available details must be stopping many potential users.

jonhohle an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sell this to school districts. This is what Google should have done from the beginning.

spking 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I love this! Thank you OP.

Feature suggestion: Invite another parent on the Family page. It would be cool if both my wife and I were able to add approved videos.

Aeolun 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How does it stop Youtube from showing recommendations?

LeonKnst 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It'd be so cool if you could customize the shelf according to kids' interests etc

pmarreck 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I, too, am a parent of a toddler who would like more control over what YouTube feeds my kid's brain.

It's almost as if YouTube should be the responsible party here, and yet... isn't.

I'm on the verge of building my own frontend to YT and using open source tooling to download only what I approve of, since their algo keeps shoving shit en masse at my kid.

Oh, and I have no idea what this app does, and don't care to sign up just to find out. Not cool.

Hugsbox 31 minutes ago | parent [-]

While I agree YouTube Kids is a mess and needs to be better-curated, we as parents are always the responsible party when it comes to what our kids consume.

nsxwolf 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Friction is the problem with something like this. If my kid grabs my phone, or uses the LG TV Youtube App, or the Apple TV app, or the PlayStation 5, can all of those default to KidScreen?

If it can't solve all those, there's absolutely no utility for me. If I were willing to become the kind of authoritarian taskmaster that tightly controls which devices my kids use to watch something at all times, I would already not need KidScreen.

HumblyTossed an hour ago | parent [-]

> If it can't solve all those, there's absolutely no utility for me.

To be fair, how the hell is that something an APP can do?

nsxwolf an hour ago | parent [-]

Yeah that's what I'm saying. So why are we making apps that pretend to do it?

bpodgursky 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Technically, 0 is a finite number. It's also the optimal number of youtube videos for a kid.

michaelmior 36 minutes ago | parent [-]

While excessive screen time can certainly be a problem and the specific content matters there is nothing inherently wrong with a small amount of age-appropriate YouTube content consumption.

wolttam 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

See also FreeTube

fudged71 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Details please.