WatchBuddy — Safe YouTube for Kids

About

WatchBuddy is a free Chrome extension that gives parents full control over what their children (ages 2-12) can watch on YouTube. Instead of hoping YouTube's built-in filters catch everything, WatchBuddy lets you decide exactly what content is allowed.

HOW IT WORKS
Install the extension, set a 4-digit parent PIN, choose your content rules, and you're done. Your child will only see approved videos on YouTube — everything else is blocked with a friendly shield screen. Setup takes under 2 minutes.

KEY FEATURES
— Content filtering across YouTube homepage, search results, video pages, and recommendations
— Full-screen block overlay on non-approved videos with no audio leaks
— Daily screen time limits with countdown timer
— PIN-protected parent settings — kids cannot bypass or change rules
— Talk to Buddy — chat with the AI assistant to set rules conversationally
— AI content discovery — automatically finds relevant channels and videos based on your rules
— YouTube Shorts completely hidden
— Parent Mode — temporarily disable filtering with a timer for supervised watching
— Dark and light mode support
— WatchBuddy status bar on YouTube showing active protection and time remaining
— All data stored locally on your device — nothing sent to external servers except optional AI filtering calls

WHAT GETS BLOCKED
When your child lands on a video that isn't approved, WatchBuddy covers the entire page with a friendly shield screen. The video is paused, audio is stopped, and keyboard shortcuts are disabled. The child can go back to the homepage or a parent can unlock the video with their PIN.

TWO WAYS TO FILTER CONTENT
Whitelist Mode (no AI needed): Pick from preset content categories — Education, Cartoons, Music, and Games — each loaded with popular kid-safe channels like Khan Academy Kids, Bluey, Peppa Pig, CoComelon, and more. You can also create custom channel groups. Only videos from channels you've approved will appear.
AI Rule Mode (optional): Describe what your child should watch in plain English, like "only art and craft videos" or "educational science content only." WatchBuddy's AI assistant, Buddy, understands your rule and automatically filters YouTube to match. Powered by OpenRouter — requires a free API key.

PRIVACY
WatchBuddy stores all settings and data locally on your device using Chrome's built-in storage. No accounts, no sign-ups, no tracking. The only external calls are to OpenRouter's API if you choose to enable AI filtering, and those calls contain only video titles and channel names for content evaluation.

WatchBuddy is completely free.