Visor

Visor is a YouTube app for kids where the only thing that plays is what a parent has approved. Instead of handing over the full YouTube app or trusting the kids version's filters, a parent approves specific channels from a dashboard, and the child sees fresh videos from those creators and nothing else. There are no ads, no Shorts and no algorithm deciding what comes next.

The problem is one most parents recognise. YouTube's recommendation feed is built to keep anyone watching, and for a child that means autoplay chains and rabbit holes that drift a long way from the channel they started on. Blanket filtering catches some of it and misses plenty. Visor removes the feed entirely and makes the channel the unit of trust, so a parent decides once and the app respects it from then on. The site's own list of what's missing is short and pointed, no ads, no Shorts, no random recommendations, no rabbit holes.

It works as a request-and-approve loop. Kids browse channels by category, including Popular, Art, Science and Tech, Sports, DIY and Crafts, Comedy, Music, Gaming and Entertainment, and ask for the ones they want. The parent gets the request and approves it with one tap, or doesn't. Approved channels then show their latest uploads inside Visor, ad-free and without Shorts or suggested videos in the margins. Each week a Week in Review report tells the parent what was watched and for how long, which is a lighter touch than live monitoring but enough to notice a habit forming. Setup is done from the parent's side. Install the app from the App Store, start the one-week trial, and approve the first few channels from the dashboard, either from the request queue or by browsing the categories yourself. After that the child's view is a simple grid of approved creators and their newest uploads, described on the site as fresh videos from the creators they love, and the parent's involvement drops to approving the occasional request and reading the Week in Review. The same subscription covers iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs, so a household with a mix of devices runs one setup.

It's built for parents of young children who want to keep YouTube's creators without YouTube's feed, and who'd rather give kids a bounded choice than none at all. The request feature gives children some say, which matters as they get older, while the approval gate keeps the final call with the adult. The App Store rates it 4 plus, and the product page carries testimonials from parents rather than feature tables. It's also aimed at families where the parent has already tried the kids version and found the recommendations creeping back in.

What sets it apart from YouTube Kids and from device-level parental controls is the strictness of the model. Filters guess what's appropriate. Visor doesn't guess, it plays approved channels only. That also makes the limits obvious. If a channel isn't approved it doesn't exist inside the app, so the first week involves some setup and a run of requests. It's Apple only, on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17.6 or later and on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14.6 or later, so Android households are out. And because it's built on YouTube's content, it's only as good as the channels a family chooses. Compared with the usual fixes, screen time limits, YouTube Kids, or simply handing over the main app with a warning, Visor changes what the child can see rather than how long they can see it. Time limits cap a feed without improving it. YouTube Kids filters a huge catalog and keeps recommending. The main app is the main app. An approved-channels model gives the parent a smaller, deliberate library and gives the child the freedom to watch anything inside it, which is a different and more relaxed kind of control. The testimonials on the site are mostly parents describing that relief.

The developer is Rainbox Studio, and the app is on the App Store under the name Visor, Family Approved YouTube. The website is a short product page with testimonials, a privacy policy and terms, and no published contact email, so support goes through the App Store listing. The privacy policy and terms are hosted on the site at gotvisor.com, and the App Store listing carries the same links.

Access is paid with a trial. The site offers one week free, and the App Store lists Visor Premium at $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year. There's no separate free tier described, so after the trial a subscription is the way to keep using it. For a parent who's been meaning to fix YouTube on the family iPad, that's a small price for a feed that stays where it was put.