Parental controls for YouTube, set once, applied to every video
Written September 24, 2026, by Jeff Pinto, who built Lantern for his own two children.
Most parental controls for YouTube work on the clock or on the channel. Lantern works on the video. Every video is reviewed before your child sees it, against limits you set once for each child, and the ones that pass make up a wall that child gets.
What you control
Fourteen limits, set for each child rather than once for the house. How scary a video feels. How loud and busy it is. One score over your line and the video does not reach your child.
You can block any channel, and it stops reaching your child. You can mark a channel you trust, and Lantern pulls in more of it, still reading every video.
We run no recommendations, and nothing autoplays. Each child gets a page of videos that fit the limits you set. Lantern runs in a browser, and 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.
How it decides
A first reader scores the video from what YouTube publishes about it. A second agent then watches the video itself, the pictures and the sound. Where they disagree sharply, the video goes to a person.
Who it is for
Children ages two to twelve. Your first day is free. After it, $7.99 a month or $79 a year for the first 250 families, and a full refund is yours on request within 30 days of the first charge.
See a real wall first: the demo wall is the same page a child gets, with no account, no email and no card.