glurpaDoes YouTube Kids still work on a smart TV — and what do parents use instead?
Yes, as a profile inside the main YouTube app — Google retired the YouTube Kids TV app in July 2024. What you can't do from the TV is choose the channels: that setting is changed in the phone app. Below: what still works on the TV, and the alternatives.
What changed in July 2024
Google closed the standalone YouTube Kids app on every TV platform — Google TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, LG webOS and Samsung Tizen — as of July 2024, and folded it into the main YouTube app. On a TV today you reach YouTube Kids, in Google's words, "by going to your kid's profile in the YouTube app on your smart TV, streaming device, or game console": open the YouTube app, pick the child's profile on the "Who's Watching?" screen, and the YouTube Kids catalog appears. Google's own page: Watch YouTube Kids on your TV, read September 2026. The 2024 announcement was reported by 9to5Google on 26 February 2024.
So if your TV's YouTube Kids tile vanished, nothing is broken. The catalog, the content levels and the parental settings you chose in the app carry over to the profile.
What YouTube Kids does well
- It is free, and it has been around since 2015. YouTube Kids launched in February 2015 as a phone and tablet app. It is supported by ads, like YouTube.
- Three content levels by age. Preschool (ages 4 and under), Younger (5–8) and Older (9–12), each a filtered slice of YouTube. You can also turn search off.
- A real approved-content-only mode, set in the phone and tablet app. "Approve content yourself" lets you hand-pick the channels, collections and videos, and nothing else plays. Once it is on, "your child can't search for any videos in YouTube Kids." It is the one place in YouTube that plays only a list a parent wrote, and for a child under about eight on a tablet it is the right tool.
- A parent code on the TV. Google: "You can add a parent code to the YouTube app on your TV to help prevent your kids from watching content outside of YouTube Kids." It is a 4-digit code under the YouTube app's Settings → Parent code, and it keeps a child inside the Kids profile rather than switching to an adult's.
What you can't do from the TV
Choose the channels. Google's instructions for the approved-content-only mode say: "If you want to change their content setting to Approve content yourself, you have to use the YouTube Kids app to make this change." That app is the phone and tablet one. Google's parental-controls page, read September 2026. Google's TV page does not say in so many words that a list you approved on the phone is what the TV profile plays — but it is the same profile on every device, and its settings carry over with it, so that is what to expect. What the TV itself gives you is the parent code, not a way to pick channels.
When a child wants more
The Older level covers ages 9–12, and many children start asking for channels beyond YouTube Kids by eight or nine. Google's answer for a child ready for more is a supervised account on the main YouTube app — a content setting for all of YouTube, which is a wider filter, not a list of channels. It is for children under 13.
The alternatives, by what you actually want
| If what you want is… | What does it | On a TV? |
|---|---|---|
| My child stays inside YouTube Kids, and can't switch to my profile | The YouTube Kids profile in the TV's YouTube app, plus the parent code | |
| Only the channels I approve, and nothing else | YouTube Kids' approved-content-only mode, set in the phone app | set on the phone; nothing on the TV changes it |
| No YouTube at all — a separate kids' catalog | A children's streaming service with its own library. Whether a given one has an app for your TV is a question for your TV's app store | depends on the service and the TV |
| Real YouTube, 9–13, with a filter rather than a list | A supervised Google account in the main YouTube app | |
| Only the channels I approve, on the TV | Dedicated allowlist apps — a real category — apps for phones, tablets and Android TV that play only approved channels | Android TV / Google TV |
| Only the channels I approve, on a Samsung, LG or any TV with a browser | The TV's web browser plus an allowlist player — the browser is the one app on every smart TV that shows a page you control |
The leave-YouTube row is the one most "YouTube Kids alternatives" articles are about, and it is a fine answer if your child does not need YouTube's creators. The rest of this page is for families who want to keep YouTube — the channels their child already loves — and narrow it to a list a parent wrote. Every method for that, screen by screen, is its own page.
If you keep YouTube: the browser method, on any smart TV
About five minutes, once. Nothing to install on the TV — smart TVs ship 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.
What you end up with is a TV that only goes where you pointed it: every video from a channel you approved, and when one ends, the next one comes from a channel you approved too. The browser is called something different on every brand: the Samsung TV guide and the LG webOS guide name the menus, and each also shows how to lock the YouTube app itself behind the TV's PIN if you want both. Setting up a tablet instead? Open glurpa.com on the tablet itself and sign up there — the child's app sets itself up with one tap. (An iPad or iPhone in Safari has you add it to the home screen first, then shows a code.) Weighing it against YouTube Kids directly: Glurpa vs YouTube Kids.
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 there still a YouTube Kids app for smart TVs?
Not a separate one. Google closed the standalone YouTube Kids TV app in July 2024. YouTube Kids is now a profile inside the main YouTube app on the TV: open YouTube, pick the child's profile on the "Who's Watching?" screen, and add a parent code so they cannot switch to yours.
Can I set "approved content only" on the TV?
No. Google says the approve-content-yourself setting has to be changed in the YouTube Kids app itself. Nothing on the TV lets you pick the channels. A list you approve in the phone app belongs to the profile the TV opens. Either set it there and the TV profile carries it, or use the TV's web browser with an allowlist player instead — the three steps on this page.
What age is YouTube Kids for?
Its three content levels are Preschool (4 and under), Younger (5–8) and Older (9–12). Many children start asking for channels beyond YouTube Kids by eight or nine, which is when parents look at a supervised account or at an allowlist of regular YouTube channels.
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.