7 ms·

I don't really understand why Youtube won't let me create a profile, on my paid family account that I'm paying $29 NZD a month for, which lets me whitelist chan

I don't really understand why Youtube won't let me create a profile, on my paid family account that I'm paying $29 NZD a month for, which lets me whitelist channels. I'm happy for my kids to have free access to certain channels on youtube, but the mind numbing shorts, and shit they find on random channels just does my head in. And it seems to be getting worse, I'm not sure if its that they are getting older and able to search for more content or if the content is just getting worse, maybe both, but I'm probably just going to cancel the sub so they at least have to put up with terrible ads if they try to access it.

Ancalagon 1y ago
Ads as effective parental controls is wild, hilarious, and somewhat dystopian to me.
- jasonfarnon 1y ago
  Why? Back when I was a kid and TV/radio were the only options, it's the ads that often got me to shut it off and do something else as often as not having anything to watch. I would wager advertiser data reflects this. Conversely I noticed a trend sometime in the 2010s my grandkids would watch shows that didnt break to commercial after rolling the end credits but instead segue to a new episode in a mini-view, and they would never leave.
ACow_Adonis 1y ago
Presumably for the same reason Google doesn't let you block or filter shit sites. If you genuinely let user's preferences be taken into account, it's incredibly hard to make money from ads if the user's true preferences are not to be shown them. The entire point of ads is to manipulate and change user preferences and behaviours. So any preferences or customisation has to be minimal enough that their use can only partially implement user preferences. White listing is a step too far against the purpose of YouTube. Thus Google will always be biased to not letting you implement full customisability and user control.
- kingnothing 1y ago
  Try Kagi. You can filter out the shit sites. It's great!
- glaucon 1y ago
  Agreed but ElCapitanMarkla is paying for an ad free service so at that point (as far as I can see) there shouldn't be any reason they can't have what they suggest.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- jorvi 1y ago
  Well, that didn't or wouldn't have mattered when Google only had a top box and sidebox with sponsored sites. Once they started masquerading ads as results, yeah any ability for user down or upranking became unworkable.
- oneeyedpigeon 1y ago
  Whitelisting—and more user control in general—seems like such a valuable feature, that they could probably charge for it. Heck, I'd pay $10 a year if I could just customise certain aspects of YouTube and remove all the ads and suggested content. Whether this is viable or not, I don't know. I'm not sure what the average take per person is from the current model.
sharperguy 1y ago
I haven't tried it myself yet, but I self host my own Jellyfin(1) instance, and I've had it recommended to combine it with pinchflat(2), which will auto download and label entire youtube channels, as they publish new videos. So then you could use it to archive and provide access to the channels you want without worrying about the recommendations and other channels. 1. https://jellyfin.org/ https://jellyfin.org/ 2. https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat
- mrheosuper 1y ago
  Interesting, i have 2 questions: - Can it limit the time range of video to download? Some channels may have ten thousand of video. - Can it auto include the CC to video, that's one of main selling points of youtube to me.
  - enobrev 1y ago
    I've just started setting this up for my own family with plex instead of jellyfin, so I don't have a LOT of answers, but... - yes pinchflat allows you to define the date at which it starts downloading. For a couple channels, I set it to only download the past year's worth of videos and it seems to have respected that properly. It also allows you to set a retention period - it allows you to download, embed, and use autogenerated subtitles (three separate options)
- GardenLetter27 1y ago
  Can you link it up with ffmpeg and SponsorBlock to remove ads?
- turkishmonky 1y ago
  I have this workflow with the ytdl-sub docker on my k8 cluster, is pretty powerful at filtering to specific videos and includes sponsorblock - everything is configuration driven, no ui, which can just be dropped into a yaml configmap I rarely have to touch it unless I'm adding a new playlist or channel https://ytdl-sub.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html https://ytdl-sub.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html It's been great, the kid can watch any channels on there she wants on her ipad with no ads or sponsored segments
modeless 1y ago
YouTube kids has a feature to only show whitelisted channels and videos. It's been there a few years now. You can share videos to your kids directly from the YouTube app.
- viraptor 1y ago
  But that also opens all the yt kids content, doesn't it? At least I couldn't find any way to whitelist within the kids app too. And there's just WAY too much brainrot crap in it to allow open access for my kid.
  - modeless 1y ago
    No. There is a true whitelist mode that only shows content you choose. Kind of weird that there are so many comments here lamenting the lack of this feature when it actually exists just as requested.
    - viraptor 1y ago
      If it's not found by people who tried the app and explicitly looked for it, maybe the problem is on the app side? (Or maybe it's not available to everyone?)
- ElCapitanMarkla 1y ago
  Hmmm I'll check it out, I last looked into this about a year ago. I'm pretty sure it still allowed a bunch of crap through that I didn't want them to have access to. edit: Oh neat they do have a parental approval mode in there now. Last time I was in here they only let you set an age range for the content that you wanted. It still seems a bit weird though, I can select a channel from the list they are presenting me but I can't search for some arbitrary channel to unlock. I'll have another look tonight though
  - modeless 1y ago
    Yeah the interface in the Kids app sucks. The way to do it is from your own phone. Use the "share" feature and choose "with kids". It takes a lot of taps to share a channel, that could be improved for sure. But if you share good channels as you come across them then over time you'll build up a great library of content for your kids.
vineyardmike 1y ago
> I don't really understand why Youtube won't let me create a profile, on my paid family account that I'm paying $29 NZD a month for, which lets me whitelist channels The answer is to this question is always: it is too niche a product feature for a giant corporation to prioritize. This product would require constant work to keep in sync as UIs and features change. It would be one more feature to regression test against an ever growing list changes, and an ever growing list of client apps that need to work across an endless list of phones, computers, tvs, etc. This is why it is important that society normalize third party clients to public web services. We should be allowed to create and use whatever UI we want for the public endpoints that are exposed. PS: this particular feature exists though. https://support.google.com/youtubekids/answer/6172308?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid https://support.google.com/youtubekids/answer/6172308?hl=en&...
- ndriscoll 1y ago
  Your second paragraph is kind of funny as a solution to your first, but was nonetheless what I was going to suggest: since it would require too much work for a multi-trillion dollar company to be cable of building, you can instead rely on hobbyists and use yt-dlp and jellyfin to make your own whitelisted youtube. The option (or at least documentation) does not seem to be there for computers. Is it only on mobile devices?
- PoignardAzur 1y ago
  The PS kind of undermines the rest of your point.
- frereubu 1y ago
  That feature isn't what I think the parent comment is asking for. What you've linked to is specifically YouTube Kids, and it's groups of channels whitelisted by the YouTube team. What I think the parent comment is asking for, and I want too, is full availability of all YouTube channels, but the ability to block everything except whitelisted channels. I agree, it's too niche a product. But I often think that people whose response to complaints about kids' access to inappropriate content is "you need to parent your kids" is fine, but I need the tools to do that! A tool like this would be a godsend.
upboundspiral 1y ago
For windows / linux I've found the freetube app to provide a lot of sane controls. I can block channels as needed, block shorts, hide profile pictures of commenters, and a lot of other quality of life things. You can even set a password for the settings as needed. Otherwise in the browser (firefox) I've been somewhat succesful in blocking youtube shorts with ublock origin filter rules: www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(1) www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2) www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(4) www.youtube.com##ytd-guide-entry-renderer.ytd-guide-section-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2)
sandworm101 1y ago
Yup. Id pay money to lock down the 24/7 Bluey youtube channel for the kids... at least until the next trend comes along. https://www.youtube.com/live/cN4EPsfBnq0?feature=shared https://www.youtube.com/live/cN4EPsfBnq0?feature=shared
- ElCapitanMarkla 1y ago
  Another commenter has just pointed out that this is actually possible in the YT Kids app now. You can select approved channels and Bluey Live is one of them. I still need to see if I can approve other channels though.
hapticmonkey 1y ago
It's pretty clear to me that Youtube shoving endless low quality content towards kids is their intended business model. It's what drives the most engagement. It's why they don't let you permanently disable YouTube Shorts. It's why they don't let you block channels easily any more. Or dislike videos. They're AB testing themselves into a low quality slop firehose. There's some truly great content on the platform, some of it even for kids. But it gets drowned out by mountains of algorithmic slop. I have stopped giving my kid access to Youtube. instead I set up my own media server, filled it with pirated TV shows and Movies I can curate, and give them access to that on the TV and iPad in their allowed screen times.
- 0_____0 1y ago
  If you disable YouTube history, it completely removes shorts. It also breaks functionality in surprising ways (breaks back button behavior - the petty bastards)
yshvrdhn 1y ago
I think its a similar issue with older generation than dont search and just scroll for content.
wileydragonfly 1y ago
The ability to filter what your kids can access disappeared with the invention of the transistor radio.
NegativeLatency 1y ago
You might be able to rig something up with invidious? https://github.com/iv-org/invidious https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
deadbabe 1y ago
Is there perhaps a way to do some kind of person-in-the-middle attack to intercept youtube packets and drop channels you don't whitelist, so that the UI only ever shows the whitelisted channels?
linuxandrew 1y ago
NewPipe blocks ads, and optionally blocks Shorts. NewPipe does also happen to break YouTube's terms of service. My opinion is that YouTube should be forced to permit third party clients (interoperate). NewPipe and the various other clients are proof that there is a desire for alternative experiences and more toggles and options. Forcing users to identity themselves online to watch videos (or certain classes of videos) is a privacy nightmare, dystopic even.
MathMonkeyMan 1y ago
I don't have kids, so I really can't comment, but I'll describe my setup. Ublock origin and Sponserblock on Firefox. I also have an extension (forget the name) that blocks recommendations after a video. Disable autoplay. There are also extensions that replace the home page with the subscriptions page. But really, if BS exists on the internet, either your kids will find it or it will be shown to them. There's nothing you can do.
methuselah_in 1y ago
You can force them to use browser like firefox if possible. I had seen some extension that you can block the shorts!
kdamica 1y ago
Have you tried creating a YouTube Kids profile? What you’re describing sounds like what they already have. It is not the default but there is a setting that allows you to create a list of allowed channels. The setting is called “Approved Content Only”.
- watwut 1y ago
  YouTube kids is a wasteland for non English content. And also, there is whole world of content I would be more then happy to encourage my kids to watch that is unavailable there. While also containing huge amount of unboxing toys crap I would not give to my kids in my own watchiles.
  - modeless 1y ago
    You can share almost any video on YouTube to the kids app. You use the YouTube app on your phone to share it, not the UI in the kids app.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

Ancalagon 1y ago

Ads as effective parental controls is wild, hilarious, and somewhat dystopian to me.

jasonfarnon 1y ago
Why? Back when I was a kid and TV/radio were the only options, it's the ads that often got me to shut it off and do something else as often as not having anything to watch. I would wager advertiser data reflects this. Conversely I noticed a trend sometime in the 2010s my grandkids would watch shows that didnt break to commercial after rolling the end credits but instead segue to a new episode in a mini-view, and they would never leave.

ACow_Adonis 1y ago

Presumably for the same reason Google doesn't let you block or filter shit sites. If you genuinely let user's preferences be taken into account, it's incredibly hard to make money from ads if the user's true preferences are not to be shown them. The entire point of ads is to manipulate and change user preferences and behaviours. So any preferences or customisation has to be minimal enough that their use can only partially implement user preferences. White listing is a step too far against the purpose of YouTube. Thus Google will always be biased to not letting you implement full customisability and user control.

kingnothing 1y ago
Try Kagi. You can filter out the shit sites. It's great!
glaucon 1y ago
Agreed but ElCapitanMarkla is paying for an ad free service so at that point (as far as I can see) there shouldn't be any reason they can't have what they suggest.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
jorvi 1y ago
Well, that didn't or wouldn't have mattered when Google only had a top box and sidebox with sponsored sites. Once they started masquerading ads as results, yeah any ability for user down or upranking became unworkable.
oneeyedpigeon 1y ago
Whitelisting—and more user control in general—seems like such a valuable feature, that they could probably charge for it. Heck, I'd pay $10 a year if I could just customise certain aspects of YouTube and remove all the ads and suggested content. Whether this is viable or not, I don't know. I'm not sure what the average take per person is from the current model.

sharperguy 1y ago

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I self host my own Jellyfin(1) instance, and I've had it recommended to combine it with pinchflat(2), which will auto download and label entire youtube channels, as they publish new videos. So then you could use it to archive and provide access to the channels you want without worrying about the recommendations and other channels. 1. https://jellyfin.org/ https://jellyfin.org/ 2. https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat

mrheosuper 1y ago
Interesting, i have 2 questions: - Can it limit the time range of video to download? Some channels may have ten thousand of video. - Can it auto include the CC to video, that's one of main selling points of youtube to me.
- enobrev 1y ago
  I've just started setting this up for my own family with plex instead of jellyfin, so I don't have a LOT of answers, but... - yes pinchflat allows you to define the date at which it starts downloading. For a couple channels, I set it to only download the past year's worth of videos and it seems to have respected that properly. It also allows you to set a retention period - it allows you to download, embed, and use autogenerated subtitles (three separate options)
GardenLetter27 1y ago
Can you link it up with ffmpeg and SponsorBlock to remove ads?
turkishmonky 1y ago
I have this workflow with the ytdl-sub docker on my k8 cluster, is pretty powerful at filtering to specific videos and includes sponsorblock - everything is configuration driven, no ui, which can just be dropped into a yaml configmap I rarely have to touch it unless I'm adding a new playlist or channel https://ytdl-sub.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html https://ytdl-sub.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html It's been great, the kid can watch any channels on there she wants on her ipad with no ads or sponsored segments

modeless 1y ago

YouTube kids has a feature to only show whitelisted channels and videos. It's been there a few years now. You can share videos to your kids directly from the YouTube app.

viraptor 1y ago
But that also opens all the yt kids content, doesn't it? At least I couldn't find any way to whitelist within the kids app too. And there's just WAY too much brainrot crap in it to allow open access for my kid.
- modeless 1y ago
  No. There is a true whitelist mode that only shows content you choose. Kind of weird that there are so many comments here lamenting the lack of this feature when it actually exists just as requested.
  - viraptor 1y ago
    If it's not found by people who tried the app and explicitly looked for it, maybe the problem is on the app side? (Or maybe it's not available to everyone?)
ElCapitanMarkla 1y ago
Hmmm I'll check it out, I last looked into this about a year ago. I'm pretty sure it still allowed a bunch of crap through that I didn't want them to have access to. edit: Oh neat they do have a parental approval mode in there now. Last time I was in here they only let you set an age range for the content that you wanted. It still seems a bit weird though, I can select a channel from the list they are presenting me but I can't search for some arbitrary channel to unlock. I'll have another look tonight though
- modeless 1y ago
  Yeah the interface in the Kids app sucks. The way to do it is from your own phone. Use the "share" feature and choose "with kids". It takes a lot of taps to share a channel, that could be improved for sure. But if you share good channels as you come across them then over time you'll build up a great library of content for your kids.

vineyardmike 1y ago

> I don't really understand why Youtube won't let me create a profile, on my paid family account that I'm paying $29 NZD a month for, which lets me whitelist channels The answer is to this question is always: it is too niche a product feature for a giant corporation to prioritize. This product would require constant work to keep in sync as UIs and features change. It would be one more feature to regression test against an ever growing list changes, and an ever growing list of client apps that need to work across an endless list of phones, computers, tvs, etc. This is why it is important that society normalize third party clients to public web services. We should be allowed to create and use whatever UI we want for the public endpoints that are exposed. PS: this particular feature exists though. https://support.google.com/youtubekids/answer/6172308?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid https://support.google.com/youtubekids/answer/6172308?hl=en&...

ndriscoll 1y ago
Your second paragraph is kind of funny as a solution to your first, but was nonetheless what I was going to suggest: since it would require too much work for a multi-trillion dollar company to be cable of building, you can instead rely on hobbyists and use yt-dlp and jellyfin to make your own whitelisted youtube. The option (or at least documentation) does not seem to be there for computers. Is it only on mobile devices?
PoignardAzur 1y ago
The PS kind of undermines the rest of your point.
frereubu 1y ago
That feature isn't what I think the parent comment is asking for. What you've linked to is specifically YouTube Kids, and it's groups of channels whitelisted by the YouTube team. What I think the parent comment is asking for, and I want too, is full availability of all YouTube channels, but the ability to block everything except whitelisted channels. I agree, it's too niche a product. But I often think that people whose response to complaints about kids' access to inappropriate content is "you need to parent your kids" is fine, but I need the tools to do that! A tool like this would be a godsend.

upboundspiral 1y ago

For windows / linux I've found the freetube app to provide a lot of sane controls. I can block channels as needed, block shorts, hide profile pictures of commenters, and a lot of other quality of life things. You can even set a password for the settings as needed. Otherwise in the browser (firefox) I've been somewhat succesful in blocking youtube shorts with ublock origin filter rules: www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(1) www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2) www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(4) www.youtube.com##ytd-guide-entry-renderer.ytd-guide-section-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2)

sandworm101 1y ago

Yup. Id pay money to lock down the 24/7 Bluey youtube channel for the kids... at least until the next trend comes along. https://www.youtube.com/live/cN4EPsfBnq0?feature=shared https://www.youtube.com/live/cN4EPsfBnq0?feature=shared

ElCapitanMarkla 1y ago
Another commenter has just pointed out that this is actually possible in the YT Kids app now. You can select approved channels and Bluey Live is one of them. I still need to see if I can approve other channels though.

hapticmonkey 1y ago

It's pretty clear to me that Youtube shoving endless low quality content towards kids is their intended business model. It's what drives the most engagement. It's why they don't let you permanently disable YouTube Shorts. It's why they don't let you block channels easily any more. Or dislike videos. They're AB testing themselves into a low quality slop firehose. There's some truly great content on the platform, some of it even for kids. But it gets drowned out by mountains of algorithmic slop. I have stopped giving my kid access to Youtube. instead I set up my own media server, filled it with pirated TV shows and Movies I can curate, and give them access to that on the TV and iPad in their allowed screen times.

0_____0 1y ago
If you disable YouTube history, it completely removes shorts. It also breaks functionality in surprising ways (breaks back button behavior - the petty bastards)

yshvrdhn 1y ago

I think its a similar issue with older generation than dont search and just scroll for content.

wileydragonfly 1y ago

The ability to filter what your kids can access disappeared with the invention of the transistor radio.

NegativeLatency 1y ago

You might be able to rig something up with invidious? https://github.com/iv-org/invidious https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

deadbabe 1y ago

Is there perhaps a way to do some kind of person-in-the-middle attack to intercept youtube packets and drop channels you don't whitelist, so that the UI only ever shows the whitelisted channels?

linuxandrew 1y ago

NewPipe blocks ads, and optionally blocks Shorts. NewPipe does also happen to break YouTube's terms of service. My opinion is that YouTube should be forced to permit third party clients (interoperate). NewPipe and the various other clients are proof that there is a desire for alternative experiences and more toggles and options. Forcing users to identity themselves online to watch videos (or certain classes of videos) is a privacy nightmare, dystopic even.

MathMonkeyMan 1y ago

I don't have kids, so I really can't comment, but I'll describe my setup. Ublock origin and Sponserblock on Firefox. I also have an extension (forget the name) that blocks recommendations after a video. Disable autoplay. There are also extensions that replace the home page with the subscriptions page. But really, if BS exists on the internet, either your kids will find it or it will be shown to them. There's nothing you can do.

methuselah_in 1y ago

You can force them to use browser like firefox if possible. I had seen some extension that you can block the shorts!

kdamica 1y ago

Have you tried creating a YouTube Kids profile? What you’re describing sounds like what they already have. It is not the default but there is a setting that allows you to create a list of allowed channels. The setting is called “Approved Content Only”.

watwut 1y ago
YouTube kids is a wasteland for non English content. And also, there is whole world of content I would be more then happy to encourage my kids to watch that is unavailable there. While also containing huge amount of unboxing toys crap I would not give to my kids in my own watchiles.
- modeless 1y ago
  You can share almost any video on YouTube to the kids app. You use the YouTube app on your phone to share it, not the UI in the kids app.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]