How TameTV will work
Install TameTV on the TV, pair it with your phone, and set the limits. Below is each step, what your kid will see, and every permission TameTV will ask for, in plain words.
Three steps
Install TameTV on the TV
It will run on Android TV and Google TV (Android 9 and up), including sets where Google's own controls are missing.
Pair it with your phone
You manage it from your phone, wherever you are.
Set the limits
A daily budget, per-app limits and allowed hours, for each kid.
YouTube is done for today
Sam used today's 30 minutes.
Parent PIN
What TameTV will do
Daily budget
Total screen time, per kid.
2 hoursa day
Per-app limits
YouTube 30 minutes, Netflix 90, or whatever you decide.
30 / 90 minYouTube / Netflix
Allowed hours
The TV works when you say, locks when you don't.
7:30 pmTV locks
From your phone, anywhere
Change limits, lock the TV, add bonus time.
+15 minbonus time
Example values. You set your own.
Setting it up
A setup guide on the TV takes you through everything with the remote. You won't need a computer, cables or a factory reset, and we're aiming for under 15 minutes.
- Pair the TV with your phone by entering a short code or scanning a QR code. You create your account on the phone, so there's no typing passwords with the remote.
- Give TameTV the permissions it needs. Each one is explained below.
- Add your first kid, tick the apps they may use, and pick a daily budget and a bedtime. Apps you don't tick stay blocked.
- Try it: give YouTube a 10-second budget and watch TameTV lock it.
You can go back to any step later. If a permission is ever switched off, TameTV asks for it again and tells you in the parent dashboard.
What your kid will see
- A "Who's watching?" screen, so each kid uses their own profile and limits. Adults pick theirs with the PIN, and adult profiles have no limits.
- A small banner 5 minutes and 1 minute before time runs out, so the end doesn't come as a surprise.
- A friendly lock screen when time is up or it's outside allowed hours. It says why, and when the TV unlocks again.
- When only YouTube's time is used up, only YouTube locks. The other apps you allowed keep working until the daily budget runs out.
- Settings and the Play Store stay locked for kids, so limits can't be switched off from the TV.
Only time with the screen on counts. Screensaver and standby don't.
A parent can unlock anything on the TV with the PIN: open an app for a while, add bonus time, or switch to an adult profile.
Permissions it will ask for
Android TV makes apps ask before they can do what TameTV needs. Here is each permission and what TameTV will use it for.
- Usage Access
- Lets TameTV see which app is open, so it can count time per app. Some Sony firmware refuses it to apps like TameTV, which is why Sony is marked Limited.
- Accessibility
- Lets TameTV notice the moment a blocked app opens and put the lock screen over it. On Android 10 and up, this is the only way for an app like TameTV to lock the screen on most TVs. TameTV will use it only to see which app is in front and to show the lock screen. Without it, TameTV can count time but can't lock anything, and the setup guide says so. Android 17's opt-in Advanced Protection setting switches it off.
- Display over other apps
- Used if your TV offers it, as a second way to show the lock screen. Many TVs hide this setting, and TameTV doesn't need it.
- Device admin (optional)
- Makes TameTV harder to uninstall without you. The setup guide explains it before you choose.
- A notification that stays
- TameTV will keep a notification saying it's running. Google requires this for apps like TameTV.
From your phone, anywhere
The parent dashboard runs in your phone's browser, at home or away. You can add it to your home screen like an app.
- See whether each TV is on, and who's watching.
- Lock a TV now, unlock it for 30 minutes, or add 15, 30 or 60 minutes of bonus time.
- Change budgets, allowed hours and the app list for each kid. Changes reach the TV within seconds.
- See time per app for each kid, for today and the last 7 days.
- Get a warning if a TV stops checking in, or if a permission was switched off on it.
If the internet drops, the TV keeps your rules and keeps counting, and catches up when it's back online.
With more than one TV, each kid's budget is shared across all of them: an hour means an hour in total, not an hour per TV.
What it won't do
- Filter what's inside the YouTube app. Google doesn't let other apps see what's playing in it, so TameTV limits YouTube time instead. Later, a safe YouTube mode will play only the channels you approve.
- Run on Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung or LG. They don't run Android TV or Google TV.
- Promise that no kid can ever get around it. It's built to resist a determined kid, with Settings and the Play Store locked, but no app can honestly promise more.
- Record the screen or what's playing. It counts time per app.
Join the waitlist
In development for Android TV and Google TV (Android 9 and up). We'll email you when it's out.