Screen a YouTube video without watching it.

One thing first, once.

During setup, one line sits above the button: "A partner's artificial intelligence helps us screen the shows and videos you ask about." The Privacy Policy is linked under it. The button is the yes.

The three taps.

These happen in whatever app you're already in. You never open Strangey Dangey to screen something.

1. 1

   Open the video.

   In YouTube, in a browser, wherever you already are. Don't leave. You don't need to copy anything.

2. 2

   Tap Share.

   The standard iOS share button. The same one you'd use to send the link to your group chat. On YouTube, tap More after Share.

3. 3

   Pick Strangey Dangey.

   The share sheet shows the call, who it's for, and the dots behind it. On a Yes it closes itself. You never leave the app you're in.

   No Share button in that app?

   Some hide it, some only on kids profiles. Copy the link and paste it into the search at the top of Watch instead. Same verdict.

Not a YouTube link? Type the name.

The search at the top of Watch takes a show or movie title, or a pasted link.

One search covers every version of it.

A title with a long history returns the whole family: the original, the remake, the spin-off, the movie. Each screened separately, because they aren't the same thing.

With more than one kid the headline can come back "Depends on the kid", broken out by name underneath. Two correct answers stacked, not a hedge.

What you're waiting on.

No progress bar. The wait card says what it is doing: "Grabbing the video…" "Watching it all the way through…" "Running it past your filters…"

• We look it up.

  The video's public details: title, channel, series and episode.

• We check what's actually in it.

  Not just the thumbnail and the title. A cute cover never earns a Yes on its own.

• Then we run it past your filters.

  Not generic safety rules: the thresholds you set for the kid asking. Same video, a Yes for one of your kids and a Hard Pass for the other.

What comes back.

Open the app, or tap the banner, for the whole card.

1. 4

   The call, and who it's for.

   One of three calls, then who it's for. "Yes, put it on. OK for Mia and Theo." Not a score out of ten. Not a color you have to interpret.

   You can disagree with a reason. You can't disagree with a number.

2. 5

   Two columns, not one score.

   Feeds on the left, Watch for on the right. Seven rows each, dots filled in for how much of it there is.

   Watch for is the safety half: overstimulation, unkind talk, brat behavior, violence, creep factor, consumerism, scary factor. Feeds is the other half, the one most parental controls skip entirely: empathy, learning, creativity, curiosity, big feelings, cleverness, and whether it gets them moving.

   Safe and feeds nothing is a real combination. This is where you see it.

3. 6

   Your kids: one row each.

   Under the dots, each kid gets a row with their call: OK, Your call, Not yet, or Hard pass. Tap a row to change it. That's where the title files in Screened.

   Where it all lands

4. 7

   The part you read when you're not sure.

   The full read opens with a few sentences on what this specific content does to a kid this specific age. It names the mechanism, not the category: what the pacing does to a stress response, what the laugh track is teaching, what a kid is likely to be like when the screen goes off.

   Then the long version, for when you want to actually decide something, not just clear a video.

The three answers.

Most things pass. This isn't an app that tells you everything is terrible.

• 

  Yes.

  Let them watch. Go do something else. The verdict still tells you what it feeds, because "safe" and "worth their time" are different questions.

• 

  Your call.

  Something specific tipped the scale, and the verdict names it. You get a real call with it: an age line, a co-watch reason, or which episodes to skip. Never "maybe preview it yourself." If we couldn't form an opinion we'd say so.

• 

  Hard pass.

  No. With the reason, in plain words, so you can hold the line when a four-year-old negotiates.

Think we got it wrong? Say so.

You were in the room. We weren't. A Yes that turned out to have a haunted house in it is the most useful mail we get.

1. 1

   Find the line under the verdict.

   Every result card carries one thin row: Did we get this one right? Tap it. You can also reach it any time from the overflow menu on a screening, under Tell us about this verdict, including days later from Screened.

2. 2

   Pick the direction. Three chips.

   Nailed it when the call held up. Too easy when we under-warned and something landed badly. Too harsh when we talked you out of something that was fine.

   The question names the call you got: a Yes asks whether it held up, a Hard Pass whether we were right to block it.

3. 3

   Add a sentence, or don't.

   A box opens for the why. One sentence is plenty, and Just the tap skips it.

   Feedback pools by show, so an episode you flag counts toward the series, not just that one upload.

When we can't read it.

We'd rather tell you than guess.

• Nothing to go on.

  Some videos don't give Strangey enough to check. You get told, instead of a confident verdict built on a title. Try another upload.

• Not in English.

  We screen English-language content today. Dubbed or foreign-language audio gets flagged rather than guessed at. More languages are on the list.

• Screening limits.

  The first 7 days are a free trial at 5 screenings a day. After that free is 3 a week, and Pro has no daily cap for normal family use. The share sheet tells you where you stand first.

Next.

The verdict is the start of the loop, not the end of it.

• Two tabs

  Find what each kid can watch

  Strangey's pick on Watch, and everything you've checked, filed under each kid, on Screened.

  9 steps · 5 min
• Two kids, two answers

  Set each kid's limits

  The seven things Strangey watches for, per kid, and the seven questions that set them for you.

  5 steps · 5 min