YouTube Time, Your Way

A: TubeTimeout is designed to empower parents in controlling and managing YouTube usage at home. 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.

A: Yes, TubeTimeout is designed to function seamlessly on any device connected to your home network, including TVs, tablets, and smartphones. 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.

A: 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, we can help manage its YouTube access. Devices using mobile data or outside your home network are not controlled.

A: Currently TubeTimeout only blocks YouTube, but there are plans to add more services like TikTok later. Please watch this space and contact us any time for more info.

A: TubeTimeout makes it easy for parents by blocking all of YouTube. It's a simple way to manage your kids' online time and it makes it easier for them to understand by just using time limits. If you need to control what your kids watch more precisely, like blocking certain videos or channels, we recommend the YouTube Kids app.

TubeTimeout is most effective for children up to around 12 years old, or for kids who aren’t especially tech-savvy. Older children with more technical know-how may find ways to bypass the system, such as by using a VPN or changing network settings on their devices.

A: 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.

A: No, TubeTimeout does not collect any data. TubeTimeout is made to be as simple and technically light-weight as possible. It doesn't collect any data, need an Internet account, website subscription or to "call home" to send any data outside of your home network. Currently, the only data it fetches from the Internet is a list of Google's YouTube servers that it needs to block when usage limits are reached. Google changes it's servers regularly to improve its service, so the data needs to be fetched regularly to be able to block traffic effectively. The amount of data fetched is in the order of kilobytes, so it shouldn't noticeably impact any data allowances that you may have.

A: TubeTimeout uses a mixed approach. It blocks some traffic to YouTube while also throttling the traffic to slow it traffic to an unusable level. Making YouTube generally harder to use achieves less engagement and frustration than making it appear to be fully broken all of the time. Users will see spinning wheels and missing content where it would normally appear. Some YouTube Shorts may still load but the app is generally unusable.

A: Using the TubeTimeout web page, it's possible to edit the limits for the group shown in the section called Usage Trackers. Here you can set the threshold after which traffic is blocked, as well as the weekday and time when the tracker resets, to allow usage again periodically. In case you need to make quick adjustments, you can also temporarily block or allow traffic for 15 minute, 1 hour or until the end of the day.

A: While there's no subscription fee, the setup is the most complicated piece needed to get started. Once configured, it's easy to manage YouTube limits for your household. Head over to the setup guide to learn how to get started and reach out if you have any issues so we can improve this FAQ.

A: Not quite — this is the first working version of TubeTimeout, and it’s considered a prototype. It successfully blocks YouTube traffic as intended and comes with minimal, functional design — what you see is what you get. There are no hidden features, automatic software updates and no subscription requirements. You can view screenshots on this site to see exactly how it works in action. That said, we do plan to explore future versions with an improved interface and hardware. These would be released separately — purchasing the prototype does not entitle you to a free or discounted upgrade to any future version, although we may choose to offer discounts or upgrade options to early supporters at our discretion. Keep an eye on your inbox or this site for any future offers! This version is intended for early adopters who are happy with a working, no-frills solution and want to support the product’s development.