I handed my kid the remote and he pulled up a Minecraft build video. Twenty minutes later I walked back in and he was watching something that made no sense — some AI-generated fever dream that technically passes YouTube’s content filters but exists only to farm clicks from children.
Every parent knows this. You need 20 minutes to cook dinner. YouTube’s algorithm takes it from there.
The Problem
The Shorts are the worst part. Rapid-fire clips designed to keep a 6-year-old scrolling. You can’t turn them off. YouTube won’t let you. It’s how they keep engagement numbers up.
I looked at YouTube Kids. It’s better, but it’s still algorithmic slop — AI-generated garbage that technically passes the filter but has no business in front of a kid.
I didn’t want a parental control. I didn’t want a filter. I wanted a completely different way to give my son YouTube without the parts designed to exploit him.
What I Did
Bought a $30 Fire TV Stick and sideloaded an open source YouTube replacement that does three things the real YouTube refuses to do:
- Completely removes Shorts. Not hidden — gone.
- Blocks all ads.
- Blocks sponsored segments inside videos.
My son gets full-length videos. Minecraft builds. Star Wars lore. Nature documentaries. The stuff he actually wants to watch. No algorithm deciding what comes next.
Then I set up retro games on the same device. NES. Super Nintendo. Genesis. Nearly 9,000 games from the 80s and 90s. He plays the same ones I played when I was his age.
Total cost: $30 and a Saturday afternoon.
Why It Matters
He asked me the other night if he could watch the Minecraft guy and I said sure without a single moment of anxiety. That’s new.
I’ve been thinking about why this felt so satisfying to build. It’s the opposite of what most tech companies want.
They want engagement. I want my kid to watch one thing, enjoy it, and go outside.
They want autoplay. I want him to choose.
They want Shorts. I want him to have an attention span.
A $30 stick and some free software gave me more control over screen time than any $15/month parental control app ever did. Because the apps are built on top of the same system causing the problem.
Sometimes the answer isn’t a better filter. It’s replacing the whole thing.
I’m an operations finance guy in rural PA, not a developer. I just Google things until they work. If you want to know how to set this up for your kids, reach out.