Starvia: a parent-controlled family video app
View completed workapps.apple.com
Starvia is a video app for families where a person chooses every video. There is no open feed and no way to wander off into the rest of the internet. Parents set the rules from a PIN-locked zone, and children get big, simple controls.
I built the app and the admin panel behind it, and took the product through to release on the App Store and Google Play.
The problem
Open video platforms leave parents policing a feed they don't control. Starvia needed to reverse that: start from a curated catalogue, then give parents direct control over what each child sees and for how long.
Three things made it harder than a standard video app:
Filtering had to hold everywhere. One unfiltered row would break the promise of the product.
Children and parents share one device and one app, so the line between their areas had to be firm.
Arabic had to be a first-class language, including for families who want Arabic menus with English videos.
A curated catalogue
A hand-picked catalogue with no open feed
Admins add each video by hand, setting its category, language, age range, and featured status. Children browse that catalogue through rows for categories, tags, and "keep watching", and search and favorites stay inside it.
A profile for each child
Creating a child profile with an avatar, age band, and content language
Each child gets a name, an avatar, an age band, and a content language. A child's age band applies wherever a video can appear: featured, recently added, category pages, related videos, what plays next, and search.
A parent zone behind a PIN
The grown-ups zone with viewing limits and a PIN screen
Parents get daily viewing limits with a gentle wind-down, category control, watch history, and an autoplay switch.
Switching profiles goes through the same PIN check, so a child can't move to a sibling's profile on their own.
English and Arabic, properly
Language settings in English and Arabic
The app has a full right-to-left layout and Arabic-aware search. Interface language and video language are separate settings, so a child can read Arabic menus and watch English videos, or the reverse.
Ready for the stores
Starvia on iPad and iPhone
One app covers iPhone, iPad, and Android. The release work included:
Monthly and yearly Premium plans
Email, Google, and Apple sign-in
Account deletion from inside the app
Privacy and terms pages in both languages
Store screenshots in both languages
Where it is now
Starvia launched on the App Store on 10 October 2026 and is also on Google Play. An update followed on 29 October with video tags, new player controls, smoother autoplay, and better Arabic search.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6803528767
0 likes · 0 views · Nov 1, 2026
A hand-picked video app for iOS and Android, with per-child age filtering, a PIN-locked parent zone, and full Arabic support.
