[vundercind]

The only responsible way to let kids use YouTube is through some kind of alternative front end, because YouTube won’t provide the simple control mechanism of an allowed channel/playlist/videos list. Be nice if they’d fix that before blocking off the only OK ways to use the thing.

(Nobody else does either, can’t even have an allowed-apps list on Apple TV, it’s all-or-nothing with totally useless rating restrictions instead, this is the main thing parents need and nobody wants to provide it)

[lern_too_spel]

That alternative frontend is the YouTube Kids app. It has exactly the functionality you want. I agree that no other video apps provide this functionality, but no other video apps have very many videos that I would show a kid anyway, so it doesn't make sense for them to implement.

[vundercind]

Oh, I’d seen the YouTube kids accounts and assumed it was like that (80% as much awful spammy shit as adult-YouTube, 5% as much good content—totally worthless) so hadn’t looked at it.

[slenk]

I would check out https://tubearchivist.com/

[pwillia7]

I think NVIDIA shield android TV has more options for parental controls, but I don't use them so can't say for sure.

[vundercind]

Yeah, had one but it was glitchy/crashy and several codec combos for Jellyfin were messed up (supported by hardware, but buggy) so I ended up back with Apple, which is how things usually go.

A quick search reads like you need third party launchers to block/allow specific apps, anyway. Seems like asking for even more jankiness, but at least it’s an option.

[em-bee]

which app are you using now?

is there any that support such a list?

i could see a possibility to add such a feature to eg freetube

[vundercind]

Some yt-dlp script with tons of features that adds full metadata and is smart enough not to re-download things. Have its output in Jellyfin, displaying as year-season-names tv shows, a show per channel or playlist.

I would love an allowlist proxy-site (like invidious) that I could redirect most YouTube requests in my house to, but I’ve not seen any that support that.

[loughnane]

I do exactly this, here's my script. each text file is just a list of URLs.

  get () {
    FILENAME="%(uploader)s/%(title)s/%(title)s (%(upload_date)s).%(ext)s"

    yt-dlp \
    --restrict-filenames \
    --no-check-certificate \
    --verbose \
    --download-archive "/volume1/Media/youtube/archive.log" \
    -i \
    --write-thumbnail \
    --convert-thumbnails jpg \
    --force-ipv4 \
    --add-metadata \
    --write-auto-sub \
    --sub-lang en \
    --write-sub \
    -f "best[height<=1080]" \
    --merge-output-format mkv \
    -o "/volume1/Media/$1/$FILENAME" \
    -v \
    --batch-file "/volume1/Media/youtube/$2"
  
    }


  get "youtube/_Singles" "unique.txt"
  get "youtube/_politics" "politics.txt"
  get "youtube/_music_videos" "music.txt"
  get "youtube/channels" "channels.txt"
  get "youtube/channels" "playlists.txt"

  exit 0

[slenk]

I would check out https://tubearchivist.com/

[dhdhfbfjofgh]

What are you talking about? This is a standard feature of the YouTube Kids apps. My child can only watch videos that I’ve allow-listed individually or by channel. I have a menu option in the main YouTube app to add videos as I browse. It works well.