How KidsTube works

KidsTube is a hand-picked video site for young children: someone collects the videos, sorts them into shows, and checks each one before it appears. This page is the short version of how that works from your side — what the site does on its own, and what changes once you log in.

The short answer to the question most parents arrive with: you do not need an account to watch anything. Browsing, searching and playing every one of the 2,500 videos works signed out. An account is for the things that have to be remembered — and it belongs to the grown-up, not the child.

Without an account

Sections, then shows, then videos: Everything is filed the way a small child looks for it. Four sections on the front page — Peuters for toddlers, Kleuters for preschoolers, Liedjes for songs, and Vloggers — with more than ninety shows inside them and around 2,500 videos inside those. There is no endless feed to fall into.
Search finds a show by name: Type in the search box at the top, or press the / key, and suggestions appear as you type. The last few things you searched for stay on that device only — they are kept in the browser, not in an account, and logging out does not lose them because they were never sent anywhere.
A player that stops where the show stops: Videos play from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode. When one ends, the next episode of the same show follows on its own, and Previous and Next step through the show. There are no comments, and no recommendation sidebar offering a child something else.
A person checks every video: New videos are collected from the channels the site follows, and none of them appears until someone has approved it. Videos that stop working on YouTube are found by a regular sweep and taken down.
Free, and paid for by ads: There is nothing to unlock and no subscription. The ads are marked as child-directed, so they are never personalised — not to you, not to your child, and not from anything either of you did here.

What logging in adds

Five things, all of them there the moment you log in. Nothing about the site gets taken away when you are signed out — these are additions, not a paywall.

Favorites, on every screen you log in on

A heart appears on every video once you are logged in. Tap it and the video is on your favorites page — from any browser, phone or tablet where you use the same account.

Your favorites

Find what you already watched

Every video played while you are logged in lands on Recently watched — which is where you look for the one whose name nobody remembers. The list is yours alone, keeps the last hundred videos, and you can drop one from it or erase the whole thing in one tap.

Recently watched

A homepage that follows those hearts

Once you have saved something, the top row of the homepage becomes Picked for you: more from the shows you favorited, minus the ones you already have. Before that — and for anyone signed out — it is a row of random videos to discover something new.

Your own videos, channels and playlists

Paste any YouTube link on My list and it plays inside KidsTube, in the same player, with previous, next and auto-advance. Paste a channel instead and you get a shelf of its latest uploads; paste a playlist and it plays in the order its owner arranged. Channels and playlists are not copied but fetched fresh each time — the first fifteen, which is as far as the YouTube feed reaches — so they keep following whatever their owner adds. Up to 500 things, private to your account: nobody else can see them and they appear nowhere on the site.

My list

Suggest something for the site itself

One checkbox on that same form offers a video or channel for KidsTube, with a note about where you think it fits. A person reads every suggestion, and your list shows where yours stands — waiting, accepted, or not accepted and why. You can withdraw one while it is still waiting. Playlists cannot be suggested: they stay private to your account.

Email and a password: At least eight characters. Signing up sends a confirmation link to that address; open it and you are in. The link works wherever you open it, so a mail app on another phone is fine.
Or continue with Google: One tap and no password to remember. We receive your email address, and the name and picture on your Google account — nothing else, and nothing is posted anywhere.
It stays logged in: The session is kept on that device, so a child opening the site never meets a login screen. Log out whenever you like from the round button at the top right, which is also where Favorites and My list live.
If you forget your password: There is no reset link on the site yet. Send us a message on Facebook or Instagram and we will sort it out — the links are at the bottom of every page.

What an account holds

Your email address: And, if you signed in with Google, the name and picture on that account. That is all we have about you.
What you saved: The videos you hearted, the links you added to My list, and the suggestions you sent us.
Which videos were watched: While you are logged in, KidsTube remembers which videos were played on your account so you can find them again under Recently watched. Only you can see that list, it keeps no position within a video and no watch time, and one button erases all of it. Watching while logged out is not recorded anywhere.
Nothing about your child: There are no child profiles and no ages — Recently watched belongs to the account rather than to a child, so two children on one tablet share one list. Separately, a video counts how many times it has been played; that number is anonymous and says nothing about who played it.
Nothing you add is public: My list and Recently watched are yours alone. A suggestion is the only thing that ever leaves it, and even then a person has to accept it before it reaches the site.

An account takes about a minute

It is free, and it is only ever for the grown-up: a child can browse, search and watch everything on the site without one.

Create an account Just start watching