Editorial standards

Primary sources only

We cite the people who make or regulate the thing we describe. For YouTube, YouTube Kids, Family Link and Screen Time that means Google's and Apple's own help pages (YouTube Help, YouTube Kids Help, Google For Families Help, Apple Support) and YouTube's official blog for product announcements.

For rules and health questions we go to regulators and medical bodies: the US Federal Trade Commission, EU law on EUR-Lex and the European Commission, Germany's KJM and BzKJ, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and German bodies such as the DGKJ and the BIÖG (formerly BZgA). Research is cited as the peer-reviewed study itself, linked by its DOI.

We do not cite other parenting blogs, SEO round-ups, Wikipedia or news articles that summarise a study. If a press article reports a study, we read and cite the study.

A number for every claim

Every factual claim that is not common knowledge carries a small number in brackets right after the sentence, such as [2]. It points to the numbered list of sources at the end of the page, and hovering or tabbing to it shows the source. A source used twice keeps its number.

Every source in that list shows the date we last opened it and checked that it still says what we quote. If we cannot find a source for a claim, we cut the claim or say clearly that it is our opinion.

Checked against Google's and Apple's help pages

Menu names and settings change. Pages that describe a setting say so in plain words: the menu names were checked against Google's and Apple's help pages on a given date. If the label on your screen looks different, the nearest match is usually the one, and we would like to hear about it.

Who writes, reviews and fact-checks

Every page names the person who wrote it. Most pages are written by Sebastian Kinzlinger, who founded Pepelly.

A reviewer is a named person with a credential a parent would recognise, such as a paediatric nurse, a child psychologist, a media educator or a primary school teacher, who read the page before it was published. A fact-checker is someone who did not write the page and checked every numbered source against the live page. Each name links to a page about that person.

When a page has not been reviewed, it shows no reviewer. We never invent one: a missing name is honest, a made-up one is not.

How we keep pages current

Pages that describe Google or Apple controls are re-verified every month: we open every source, check the menu paths and refresh the accessed dates. Every other page is checked at least once a year.

When Google or Apple renames or removes a control, or a law or rule changes, we update the affected pages straight away. A page's URL stays the same when a feature is renamed.

The "Updated" date at the top only moves when a sentence on the page changed. We do not bump a date to make a page look fresh.

Pepelly, YouTube and ads

Pepelly makes a video player for children, so we have an interest. A guide or term may name Pepelly as one example among several and once more in the box at the end; the rest of the page should read the same without it.

This website never uses data from the YouTube Data API: no view counts, subscriber numbers or video lists pulled from YouTube. Pepelly is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.

Pepelly does not block or remove YouTube's ads, and no page on this site says that it does.

Corrections

Found a mistake, a menu that has moved or a source that no longer says what we quote? Write to hello@pepelly.app.

We correct factual errors as soon as we have checked them, and the date at the top of the page shows when it changed.