How to Block YouTube Kids on iPhone

Blocking YouTube Kids on iPhone usually means a Screen Time App Limit under the Entertainment category — but it's worth knowing upfront that YouTube Kids ships its own built-in timer, which may already do what you need without touching Screen Time at all. If a Screen Time limit is still the right call, it has a real gap: it stops the YouTube Kids app specifically, not the separate YouTube app or youtubekids.com in a browser, both of which a child eventually reaches for once YouTube Kids stops being enough.

Do you actually need Screen Time for YouTube Kids, or is its own timer enough?

Open YouTube Kids, tap the lock icon in the corner — it asks an adult to solve a simple math problem or enter a custom passcode — and look for Timer under Settings. Set a number of minutes and tap Start; the app locks itself into a "Time's up!" screen when the clock runs out, and getting back in needs that same lock-and-passcode step. It runs entirely inside the app: no Family Sharing, no separate Screen Time passcode.

For a parent who just wants a session to stop on its own, that's often genuinely enough, and a Screen Time App Limit on top of it doesn't buy much. Screen Time earns the extra setup when you want to manage the limit remotely through Family Sharing, when one passcode should cover several apps instead of a separate in-app PIN per app, or when other apps on the same device need limiting too — a single Screen Time setup reaches all of them, where the in-app timer only ever covers YouTube Kids.

How do you set a Screen Time limit on YouTube Kids?

1. For a child's own device managed remotely, set up Family Sharing first, in Settings → [your name] → Family Sharing, adding the child with their own Apple ID. For a shared device, skip this and set the limit directly on it.
2. Open Settings → Screen Time, and — if using Family Sharing — select your child's name under the Family section.
3. Tap App Limits → Add Limit. YouTube Kids sits under Entertainment in Apple's classification, or search for YouTube Kids directly to limit just that app.
4. Set a time allowance and the days it applies.
5. Confirm a Screen Time passcode is set on your own device, separate from the device's normal passcode — without one, the limit can be removed by anyone who knows how.

Menu wording shifts slightly between iOS versions, but the App Limits path itself has stayed steady for years.

Does blocking YouTube Kids in Screen Time also block youtubekids.com in Safari?

No. An App Limit only recognizes the app icon — it has no effect on youtubekids.com opened in Safari, which serves a browser version of the same catalogue with no app required.

To close this, go to Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content, choose Limit Adult Websites, and add youtubekids.com to the "Never Allow" list. This only covers Safari — a second browser needs the same restriction or its own App Limit.

What happens when a child moves from YouTube Kids to the regular YouTube app?

This is the gap that matters most on this page. YouTube is a completely separate app from YouTube Kids — different binary, different catalogue, no age-based curation — and none of it is touched by a limit aimed at YouTube Kids. Both apps need their own limit to cover a child's full YouTube usage rather than just the version they've outgrown.

Kids typically move to the main app well before a parent revisits the Screen Time setup — a bigger phone, a friend's recommendation, or simply outgrowing the kids' interface — and by the time that happens, the App Limit built for YouTube Kids is already stale, even though nothing on the surface looks like it changed. If the regular YouTube app isn't installed yet and you'd rather it stay that way, Content & Privacy Restrictions → iTunes & App Store Purchases → Installing Apps blocks new app installs outright — a different setting from an App Limit, and worth knowing about on its own.

Why does YouTube Kids pull at kids specifically?

YouTube Kids' autoplay queue works the same basic way YouTube's does — one video finishes and the next is already chosen — but it's tuned around content and pacing built for shorter attention spans, running on a device usually sitting in a child's hands rather than a parent's. That combination makes "just one more video" the default outcome rather than a decision: there's no natural stopping point in the interface, and the person the interruption falls to isn't the person who set the limit.

What's the most realistic way to actually limit what a child watches on YouTube Kids?

For managing what comes after YouTube Kids, blocking the regular YouTube app covers the same steps for the adult version. Working through limits with a child, rather than imposing them, is covered in how to set Screen Time without fights.

What can't a YouTube Kids limit — or its own timer — fix?

Neither makes YouTube Kids impossible to reach. The in-app PIN can be watched and repeated by an observant child, a Screen Time passcode can be changed by anyone who knows it, and an unrestricted device nearby — another family member's phone, a hand-me-down tablet — sidesteps both entirely. Each one adds a step between a child and the app rather than removing it as an option, and neither is something to set once and forget.

FAQ

Does YouTube Kids' own timer work as well as a Screen Time App Limit?

Not identically, but it's often enough on its own. The in-app timer locks YouTube Kids after a set number of minutes without any Family Sharing setup or Screen Time passcode — it just needs the lock-icon PIN inside the app. A Screen Time App Limit adds remote management through Family Sharing and one passcode that can also cover other apps, which matters more once there's more than just YouTube Kids to manage.

Does blocking YouTube Kids in Screen Time also stop a child from using the regular YouTube app?

No. YouTube is a completely separate app from YouTube Kids, with its own catalogue and no age-based curation. An App Limit set on YouTube Kids has no effect on it — both need their own limit, and children often move from one to the other before that gets updated.

Will YouTube Kids still work in Safari if I set an App Limit?

Yes, unless you restrict it separately. youtubekids.com serves the browser version of the same catalogue, and an App Limit only recognizes the app icon, not the website. Add it under Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content.

What happens when a child taps "Ask For More Time" on YouTube Kids?

On a Family Sharing child account, this doesn't unlock the app the way it would on an adult's own phone — it sends a request to the parent's device, which you can approve or decline from wherever you are. If the device isn't set up through Family Sharing, there's no such request; the limit simply holds until whoever knows the Screen Time passcode changes it.

Does deleting the YouTube Kids app delete a child's watch history or the timer setting?

No. Deleting the app only removes it from the device. Anything tied to the signed-in profile — including watch history if a Google account is linked — returns once the app is reinstalled and signed back in; the timer itself has to be set again since it isn't saved anywhere outside the app.

Can an app like Step N Scroll see what a child watches inside YouTube Kids?

No. Apple's Family Controls framework gives third-party apps opaque tokens representing blocked apps, not visibility into what happens inside them. No developer in this category can see which videos or channels a child watched.

Sources

• Apple Support — "Set up Screen Time for a family member"
• Apple Support — "Set content and privacy restrictions on iPhone"
• Apple Support — "Use Family Sharing and Screen Time for a child's device"
• Apple Support — "Use parental controls to manage your child's iPhone or iPad"