YouTube Time Your Way

When you set up TubeTimeout, each device in your home that you wish to monitor is configured to route its network traffic through TubeTimeout before accessing the Internet.

This setup allows TubeTimeout to inspect the destination of the internet traffic and keep track of the time spent on YouTube.

For every minute a device spends on YouTube, TubeTimeout updates its count. If the usage exceeds the pre-configured time limit that you, the parent, have set, TubeTimeout automatically blocks further access to YouTube from that device.

This way, TubeTimeout ensures that your kids' time on YouTube remains within healthy limits, safeguarding their online habits and promoting balanced internet usage.

TubeTimeout is a super simple solution that doesn't require any subscriptions so it's great if you want a low-cost solution that just works.

There are some things you need to be able to configure on your home network before it will be a good fit. You need to be able to:

- Disable DHCP on your router so TubeTimeout can take over

- Disable IPv6 altogether

It's unlikely that you'll need IPv6 unless you have advanced requirements. If this doesn't sound familiar then the chances are you don't need it! 🙌

YouTube's apps are clever and employ lots of smart tech to ensure they work seamlessly. By disabling IPv6, TubeTimeout can have full control over all network traffic to perform the necessary filtering & blocking. Without this TubeTimeout simply can't do it's job.

We're working on improving this so please stay in touch to find out more.

TubeTimeout works with any device connected to your home Wi-Fi — including smart TVs, tablets, phones, and computers. If it’s using your home internet, TubeTimeout can manage its YouTube access. Devices using mobile data or outside your home network are not controlled.

During the setup process, TubeTimeout is configured to issue IP addresses to all devices on your network rather than your home router. This configuration allows TubeTimeout to act as the default gateway, effectively managing and restricting access to YouTube across all devices.

This way, you can confidently ensure that all internet-enabled devices in your home are safeguarded. After all, kids are smart and tend to try different devices to check where YouTube is still accessible.

Currently, TubeTimeout only blocks YouTube. However, we plan to add support for other services like TikTok in the future. Stay tuned for updates and feel free to contact us for more information.

TubeTimeout blocks all of YouTube, making it simple to manage your kids' online time with just time limits. If you need more precise control, like blocking specific videos or channels, we recommend using the YouTube Kids app.

TubeTimeout sets limits based on groups of devices on the home network rather than individual children. This approach ensures that children cannot team up and share each other's devices to extend their screen time. By creating groups for each child's set of devices, TubeTimeout effectively prevents kids from hopping from one device to another, such as borrowing siblings' tablets or switching TVs, to bypass time restrictions. This setup helps parents maintain consistent screen time limits for all their children, promoting fair and balanced usage in the household.

When the time limit is reached, TubeTimeout blocks some YouTube traffic and slows down the rest to make it nearly unusable. This approach reduces frustration compared to a complete block. Users will see spinning wheels and missing content, making YouTube difficult to use. Some YouTube Shorts may still load, but overall, the app becomes unusable.

TubeTimeout is most effective for children up to around 12 years old or those who aren't very tech-savvy. Older kids with technical skills might find ways to bypass the system, like using a VPN or changing network settings.

No, TubeTimeout does not collect any personal data or account information. It is designed to be simple and lightweight, without needing an internet account, website subscription, or sending data outside your home network. The only data it fetches is a list of Google's YouTube servers to block when usage limits are reached. This data fetch is minimal and won't noticeably impact your data allowance.

Head over to the documentation section in the menus above to learn how easy it is to get started.

The setup is the most complicated piece needed to get started. Once configured, it's super easy to manage YouTube limits for your household on a daily basis.

Please reach out if you have any issues so we can improve this FAQ.

There's no subscription fee or hidden costs either. Just the price of the product, that's it.

Not quite — this is the first working version of TubeTimeout and it’s probably better described as a prototype for now.

This version is intended for early adopters who are happy with a working, super-simple solution and want to support the product’s development.

It successfully blocks YouTube traffic and comes with a deliberately minimal design — essentially, what you see is what you get.

There are no hidden features, automatic software updates and no subscription requirements. You can view screenshots in the documentation on this site to see how it works.

We do plan to explore future versions with an improved interface and hardware. We'd like to add automatic updates for the software too. These things would be released separately so purchasing the prototype does not officially entitle you to a free or discounted upgrade to any future version.

That said, we may choose to offer discounts or upgrade options to early supporters at our discretion later. Keep an eye on your inbox or this site for future offers!