A safer YouTube for kids, chosen by you
Set what your child can watch, in your own words. Lantern checks every video against your settings before it reaches their screen.
Lantern is a private beta. Every family who signs up is invited automatically, a limited number each day.
Each child gets a wall of videos that fit the ceilings you set.
The problem
The problem with YouTube for kids
YouTube's algorithm decides what your child watches next, not you. The controls you get are coarse: a kids mode, a time limit, an on-off switch. None of them let you say what worries you, and none explain themselves when they get it wrong.
The answer
What Lantern does
A first reader checks every video's title, channel, description and details before it can reach your child's wall. A second reader then watches the video itself, starting with the videos already on your child's page. Whichever verdict the watcher returns governs. If it finds something the first reader missed, the video comes off every wall it is on immediately.
What the readers find becomes 14 scores like “how scary a video feels”, “how loud and busy it is”, “how hard it is selling something”. You set the highest number allowed on each one. One score over your line on any dial and the video does not reach your child’s wall.
Each week a report card shows you your child’s minutes, what they finished, what the gate turned away and which of your dials did it, and one thing you could change. Your dials, your channel list and your review queue all live on one parent page.
What you get
A report card: a grade, a chart of every night, and how well each limit held.
See a finished wall before you sign up for anything.
Try the demo wallQuestions parents ask
How much does Lantern cost?
$7.99 a month or $79 a year for the first 250 families, then $9.99 a month or $99 a year, for up to four children. A founding family keeps that price for as long as its subscription runs without a break. Cancel at any time and the time you already paid for runs to its end; a full refund is yours on request within 30 days of the first charge. It pays for the machines that watch every video and for the support queue. The whole of it is on the pricing page.
Does my child need an account?
No. Your child gets a link to their own wall. No account, no sign-in, no password, ever.
What does Lantern store?
Your family's settings and wall live in your own family's file. Once a day one thing leaves it: a count, pooled across every family, of how many times each video played and finished. Nothing about your child, or what they watched, goes with it.
Can I delete it?
Yes, at any time. One button in Settings removes every child, link, setting and file Lantern holds for your family. The kid's link stops working immediately, and you get a receipt.
Does it work on iPad / tablet?
Yes. Each child gets a link and a QR code you add to their iPad or tablet home screen, so it opens like its own app.
A safer YouTube for kids, chosen by you
Lantern is a private beta. Every family who signs up is invited automatically, a limited number each day.