Why the next episode starts by itself
When a video ends here, the next episode of the same show starts on its own. The watch page says so, and so does this, because "we don't autoplay" would be the easy story and it is not true.
What it is
It is the next episode of the show you were already in, in that show's order. Not a video chosen because people stay on it, and not something from a different programme. There is no sidebar beside the player queueing something else up, and no comments underneath.
And it runs out. A show has a last episode: Pocoyo has ninety and then it is done. That is the difference from a feed, which by design has no last item.
Why we did not turn it off
Because a two-year-old does not operate a mouse. Without it, every four-minute episode is a moment that requires an adult, and in practice that means either the tablet lives with the parent or the child starts tapping for themselves — and tapping for themselves is exactly how you end up somewhere nobody sent you.
The alternative is not a calmer child, it is a different kind of friction. That is the trade, and we think it is defensible. It is not free.
Where it stops, and what is still missing
With an account you can set a daily limit, a bedtime, or both. When the time is up, the video that is playing may finish — for ten minutes at most — and then the next one does not start, on any screen where your account is logged in. Browsing still works; watching waits until tomorrow.
Two things are still missing, and they belong here. There is no "stop after this one": if you want it to end after a single episode, you have to be the one who ends it. And the limit only applies while you are logged in, and it belongs to the account rather than to a child — there is no limit per child yet. A PIN keeps your child out of the settings, but it is a hurdle for children, not protection for your account.
What you can do today
The practical half: pick something with short episodes if you want to be able to stop. Songs hand you a natural break every three minutes; a twenty-minute episode hands you one. That sounds small and in a house it is the difference between stopping and interrupting.
The guideline itself is in another post, with the recommended limits per age.