glurpaHow do I limit YouTube to only the channels I approve on a Samsung TV?
You can't — not with any setting on the TV. Samsung's parental settings lock whole apps, YouTube's Restricted Mode filters mature content only, and YouTube Kids no longer has a TV app. The method that works uses the TV's web browser.
What each Samsung and YouTube setting actually does
| What you might try | What it actually does | Only approved channels? |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Parental Settings (PIN) | Locks whole apps or broadcast channels; menu names vary by model year | |
| YouTube app → Restricted Mode | Filters age-restricted and mature content; junk aimed at children isn't "mature" | |
| YouTube Kids | Google retired the standalone YouTube Kids TV app in July 2024 and moved it to a child profile inside the main YouTube app. Its hand-picked "Approve content yourself" mode is set up in the YouTube Kids phone app, and Google documents no way to manage it from the TV | |
| Google Family Link | Governs the child's phone or tablet profile, not what plays in the TV's YouTube app | |
| Samsung browser lock | All-or-nothing PIN on the browser | |
| TV browser + an allowlist player | The browser is the one app on the TV that shows a page you control |
Every row above was checked in August 2026. Samsung menu names move between model years; what none of them offer, on any year, is a list of channels you approve.
The method that works, in three steps
About five minutes, once. Nothing to install on the TV — every Samsung smart TV ships with a web browser, and a browser shows whatever page you point it at.
- On your phone, create a free account at glurpa.com/app and approve the channels you choose.
- On the TV, open the built-in web browser and go to glurpa.com/tv. A short pairing code appears.
- Type the code into your phone. The TV switches to your child's approved channels.
The whole thing, start to finish. Nothing installed, nothing bought.
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. We store the parent's email, the child's first name, and resume positions, with 90-day history retention. Glurpa is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube or Google. Built by a dad after hitting exactly the wall this page describes.
Questions parents ask
Does this work on older Samsung TVs?
Yes — the player is built as ES5 for 2014-era TV browsers; if the TV has a browser, it works.
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.
Can my child get out of it?
Glurpa shows one thing: the channels you approved. No search box, no feed to scroll, nothing else on the screen. It's designed to prevent accidental taps and navigation by pre-readers — the remote and touch do only what you'd expect: play, pause, skip, back. Inside Glurpa there is simply nothing to wander into.
What does Glurpa collect?
Three things, and that's the whole list: your email address, the first name and avatar you pick for your child, and where they stopped watching so shows can resume. No advertising trackers, no identifiers, nothing sold. By default we also use YouTube's more private player setting, which holds off on cookies until a video actually plays.
Checked August 2026. Samsung and YouTube both move their menus; this page is re-checked yearly, and the date above is the last time someone did.