Jareer Abdullah

I've spent the last few weeks deep in build mode on a YouTube recommendation filter (launching on PH this Tuesday more on that separately), and it's made me rethink something I used to take for granted: that blocking distracting apps outright is the strong move.

The more parents and students I talk to, the more I notice the same pattern: block an app, and the underlying pull doesn't go away it just moves to whatever's still allowed. Kids get creative. Adults get creative. The recommendation algorithm was never really "the app." It was the incentive structure sitting underneath it.

My kid asked to watch one Bluey episode. Auto-play had other plans. Forty-five minutes later it was unboxing videos, a bedtime meltdown, and me wondering why a video platform built for "watching what you want" had quietly turned into a platform that decides for you.

That's the problem I set out to fix with NoSuggest, a free, open-source PWA that strips YouTube down to just the channels you choose. No recommendations, no Shorts, no auto-play, no trending feed, no algorithmic rabbit holes.

Kids only ever see content from channels a parent explicitly added. There's a dedicated Kids Mode with a 6-digit PIN, and it hides anything that could lead to an accidental tap outside curated content.