glurpaGlurpa or YouTube Kids — which should my family use?
Use YouTube Kids if your child is under about eight and watches on a phone or tablet: its approved-content-only mode is free and it works. Use Glurpa when the screen is a TV, when the same channels should follow your child from tablet to TV, or when they have outgrown the YouTube Kids catalog but you still want a list you wrote. Many families run both.
One thing first, so nothing below is misread: Glurpa is not a version of YouTube Kids, and it is not made by YouTube or Google. It is a parental-control player for the YouTube channels you approve — the videos play in YouTube's own embedded player, and Glurpa is the parent side: the list, the profiles, the screen-time tools. YouTube Kids is Google's own app for children, with its own filtered catalog. They solve overlapping problems from different directions.
The short version
| YouTube Kids | Glurpa | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Google. Launched in February 2015. | One dad, for his son, in 2026. Not affiliated with YouTube or Google. |
| Price | Free, supported by YouTube's ads. | Free forever to watch the channels you've approved, no card. Pro — the parent tools — will be $4.99 a month when the beta ends. |
| Where it runs | Phone and tablet apps, and the web at youtubekids.com. On a TV, as a child profile inside the main YouTube app since July 2024. | Any web browser: a Samsung or LG TV's own browser, a tablet, a phone, a laptop by the TV. Nothing to install, no app store. |
| How content is chosen | Google's filtered catalog at three levels — Preschool (4 and under), Younger (5–8), Older (9–12) — or only the channels, collections and videos you approve, chosen in the YouTube Kids app. | Only the channels you approve, on every screen, a TV's browser included. When a video ends, the next one comes from a channel you approved. |
| Search | Yes, within the catalog; a parent can turn it off, and approved-content-only turns it off. | There is no search box. A child can tap "Ask a grown-up" for a topic; it lands in your dashboard for one-tap approval. |
| Ads | YouTube's ads. | Videos play inside YouTube's own player, so YouTube's ads behave exactly as they do on YouTube — we never touch ads. Glurpa works with your family's own YouTube Premium subscription. |
YouTube Kids facts from Google's own pages — YouTube Kids on your TV, parental controls and content levels — read September 2026. YouTube Kids also has a timer, up to eight child profiles, and, in approved-content-only mode, recommendations come only from what you approved — all three from Google's content-levels page above.
Where YouTube Kids is the better choice
- A child under about eight, on a tablet or phone, and you want a list you wrote. "Approve content yourself" in the YouTube Kids app does exactly that, free, from Google. Our methods page gives Google's own steps.
- You want a filtered catalog, not a list. If you would rather Google choose a slice of YouTube by age than name channels yourself, that is what the three content levels are for, and Glurpa does not do it — Glurpa has no catalog except the one you build.
- You want everything inside one Google account — Family Link, the child's profile, the parent code on the TV. YouTube Kids is part of that; Glurpa is a separate, parent-side account.
Where Glurpa is the better choice
- The screen is a TV, and you'd rather not sign a Google account into it. On a TV, YouTube Kids is a profile inside the YouTube app, opened by signing in — Google's own TV setup steps say to sign in "with the same account that you used to set up your kid's YouTube Kids profile" — and the parent code keeps the child out of that account, not out of signing in to begin with. Glurpa runs in the TV's own browser with no Google sign-in: open glurpa.com/tv, type the short code into your phone, and the TV shows the channels you approved and nothing else. What each TV can and cannot do on its own: YouTube Kids on a smart TV, Samsung, LG.
- The same channels on every screen. A Glurpa lineup is one list; pair the TV, the tablet and the old laptop and each shows it, and a show paused on one resumes on another. Screens are free — we never charge per device.
- They want channels beyond YouTube Kids, and you still want a list. When the channels a child asks for are regular YouTube ones, Glurpa's list can hold them — approved together, at the table — while keeping the promise that only chosen channels play.
- Parent tools. A daily time limit decided on our servers, a bedtime window, one tap on your phone that pauses every screen, and drift alerts when a channel you approved is no longer what you approved — those become Glurpa Pro when the beta ends. Reading back what your child watched stays free on every plan. Everything on the features page is about your control panel; none of it gates what a child can watch.
- Built for pre-readers. Big tiles, their name, their channels. Accidental taps and stray navigation go nowhere, and the remote moves through Glurpa's own tiles.
Can you use both?
Yes, and plenty of families do: YouTube Kids' approved-content-only mode on the tablet that goes to their room, Glurpa on the living-room TV's browser, with the same channels approved in each. The lists are kept separately — Glurpa cannot read a YouTube Kids approved list, and does not try to — so keeping them in step is your job, and it is a small one.
What Glurpa is — and is not
Glurpa is a parental-control player for the YouTube channels you approve. It is free forever for 5 channels; the paid tier is parent software — screen-time limits, bedtime, content-drift alerts, pausing every screen from your phone — and never buys videos. Videos play in YouTube's own embedded player, ads and all; Glurpa works with your family's own YouTube Premium subscription and never touches ads. Among what we store: the parent's email, the child's first name, and what they've watched, deleted after 90 days — every item is listed on our privacy page. Glurpa is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube or Google. Built by a dad after hitting exactly the wall this page describes.
During the beta, every family gets all of Glurpa, free — nothing is held back. Every family that joins while Glurpa is in beta is a founding family. When the beta ends, Glurpa Pro will be $4.99 a month — founding families keep that rate for good, and watching is never what you pay for, on any plan, ever.
Questions parents ask
Is Glurpa a replacement for YouTube Kids?
No — it is a different kind of tool. YouTube Kids is Google's filtered catalog for children. Glurpa is a parental-control player for the regular YouTube channels you approve: you write the list, and the child's screen shows only that, on a TV or any screen with a browser. Many families run both.
Does Glurpa use YouTube Kids' content or settings?
No. Glurpa plays public YouTube channels you choose, through YouTube's own embedded player. It cannot read a YouTube Kids approved list or a Family Link setting, and it does not try to. Glurpa is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube or Google.
Which one works on a Samsung or LG TV?
Both, differently. YouTube Kids is a child profile inside the TV's YouTube app, with a parent code, but its approved-content-only setting is changed in the phone app. Glurpa runs in the TV's web browser and shows only the channels you approved. With either one, you choose the channels on your phone, not with the remote.
Will there be ads?
Videos play inside YouTube's own player, so YouTube's ads behave exactly as they do on YouTube — we never touch ads. Glurpa works with your family's own YouTube Premium subscription: if you have one, a setting switches to the standard YouTube player so your household subscription applies on a signed-in TV. That's YouTube's feature, sold by YouTube — we won't pretend otherwise.
What does Glurpa collect?
The main items: your email address, and for your child the first name and avatar you pick, the limits you set, and what they've watched — every item is listed on our privacy page, including the code that keeps each screen paired. No advertising trackers, nothing sold. By default we also use YouTube's more private player setting, which holds off on cookies until a video actually plays.
Checked September 2026. Google and the TV makers move their menus; this page is re-checked yearly, and the date above is the last time someone did.