Parental controls for the videos your kids watch
Take back control of the algorithm.
Set the rules once, and Watchling checks every video so you don't have to — by what it is, not just who made it.
A full feed of hand-picked channels in two taps.
Regular YouTube wasn't built for your kid
It's engineered to maximize watch time — a very different goal from keeping a child safe. Left alone with it, this is what they're handed:
Autoplay never stops
One video rolls straight into the next, and the recommendations chase attention — not age-appropriateness. Safe content drifts into content that isn't, a click at a time.
Disturbing content in disguise
Familiar characters and bright thumbnails are used to sneak in videos no child should see. Even "kids" surfaces miss them — the moderation runs after the fact, at a scale no team can fully catch.
Ads for anything
A young child can't tell an ad from the show, and you don't choose what they're pitched — from junk food to games designed to keep them tapping.
No natural stopping point
An endless feed built to keep them watching, with nothing that says "that's enough for today" — so screen time becomes a fight instead of a setting.
Watchling is built the opposite way
Your rules, applied to every video
A channel you trust can still post a video you don't. Watchling reads each one and sorts it — automatically.
Emma's rules
Set once, in the parent area. Change them any time.
Three taps, then it runs itself
Pick a starter pack
Choose your child's age and Watchling fills the feed with a ready-made set of channels picked by real people — full from the very first open.
Set your rules
Allow the kinds of videos you're happy with, block the ones you're not, set a daily limit. Plain language — no approving channels one by one.
The AI does the rest
Every new upload is read and tagged by type, then kept or hidden by your rules. Anything unclear stays hidden until it's cleared — hidden by default.
Decide what they see. See what they watched.
YouTube's algorithm decides what your kid watches — to keep them watching. Watchling hands the wheel back to you: your rules shape the feed, and a simple weekly recap shows what they actually watched. No mystery, no rabbit holes.
- ✓You decide, with plain rules — no algorithm chasing "just one more."
- ✓A simple weekly recap — what they watched, and for how long.
- ✓It's just for you. We don't build a profile on your child, or sell a thing.
Emma's week
This weekBy what a video is, not just who made it
Approving channels one by one puts the work — and the risk — on you. Watchling moves it to the AI.
The manual way
- ✕You vet and unblock every channel yourself, one at a time.
- ✕A trusted channel's off-topic upload slips straight through.
- ✕New content means more manual work, forever.
- ✕Starts empty — a chore before your child sees anything.
Watchling
- ✓You set rules about content type; the AI applies them everywhere.
- ✓Every video is judged on its own — the channel isn't a free pass.
- ✓New uploads are sorted automatically, with no work from you.
- ✓Opens to a full, age-right feed from a ready-made starter pack.
A full feed, ready on day one
Real people choose the starting channels. From there, the AI sorts every new video by kind.
Careful isn't a setting — it's the default
Deny by default
Anything we're unsure about stays hidden until it's checked. When we're not sure, a video stays out.
Almost no data
No child accounts, no profiles that identify a real child, no analytics or advertising SDKs of our own.
The real player
Videos play in YouTube's own official player — nothing downloaded, copied, or re-hosted.
A grown-up in control
A PIN-gated parent area holds the rules, the time limits, and the review queue. Kids just watch.
Be first to try Watchling
We're building the video app parents actually want, the kind that does the work for you. Leave your email and we'll invite you in.
No spam, ever. One email when there's something to see.
Common questions
Why don't some YouTube videos play in Watchling?
Watchling only plays videos that are marked as made for kids on YouTube. The person who uploads a video usually sets that, and YouTube can set it too. It's the same for every child, whatever their age, and no setting changes it.
We do this for your child's privacy. Videos play in YouTube's own player, and YouTube says it doesn't show personalised ads on videos marked as made for kids. YouTube's ads can still appear on them.
So some videos from channels you allow won't show up, and some videos you added or approved before may have disappeared. Approving one of these videos, or adding it by link, won't make it play.
Where do the kinds of video come from?
They're Watchling's own labels, not YouTube's categories. When a channel you allow uploads a new video, our software reads its title, description and tags, and sorts it into kinds like science, music, unboxing or pranks. It doesn't watch the video itself. Labels can be wrong sometimes, which is why anything we haven't sorted stays hidden, and why you can review the videos we're unsure about.
Questions or a problem?
Email us. Here's how quickly we aim to respond.
A video or channel that isn't right for children
Email support@getwatchling.com with the video or channel. We aim to act within 24 hours. If it's clearly not right for children, we aim to remove it for every family on Watchling the same day.
In the app, your child can also report a video. That hides it for that child right away and puts it on your review list. It also tells us which video was reported, never who reported it. If you think other families shouldn't see it, email us too and tell us why.
Your family's information, or deleting your account
Email compliance@getwatchling.com. We aim to reply within 2 business days and to finish your request within 10 business days. To protect your family, we first check by email that the request really comes from you, so please write from the address you signed up with.
You can also delete your account yourself in the app, in the grown-ups area under Account. That happens straight away.
Everything else
A bug, a question, an idea: email support@getwatchling.com. We aim to reply within 2 business days.