Common Sense Media Review
By Christy Matte
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Great curated videos; lacks ability for parents to filter.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Highbrow
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
HIGHBROW is a collection of (primarily) YouTube videos for kids covering everything from language and travel to stories and songs to science and technology. Parents sign up for an account and create profiles for each of their kids. Each child must be assigned to an age group (1-3, 3-5, 5-7, 7-11). Parents can also choose up to 12 languages for kids to learn (including English as a second language). On paid accounts, kids sign into their profile and either stream videos randomly (they can fast-forward and/or "like" a video to save it in their collection) or pick and choose from a variety of categories. Parents can see what their kids have been watching from a parent control area that is blocked by a year-of-birth parent gate.
Is It Any Good?
This is a delightful video collection with great variety, but it sorely lacks the ability for parents to choose appropriate categories for their family. Highbrow has a polished feel and the hand curation is evident. The kids' main screens (designed to look like a bedroom) feel too vast and cluttered, especially considering that there are only two things to click on. That's a small quibble, however, for an otherwise clean and easy-to-use interface. As the videos are free and readily available, parents will need to decide if the platform is worth the subscription fee, and that may be impacted by the inability for parents to control the content in any way. Beyond the concern some parents may have over the religious material, not all kids in an age bracket may be ready for the same types of math, or have an interest in ballet. Still, it's a more closed environment than YouTube itself, and that may be worth putting up with the downsides.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about choosing videos to watch. What are you interested in watching on Highbrow? Why? Do you have questions about any of the videos you've watched?
Talk about what it's like to make videos. A lot of the videos have kids in them. Do you think it would be fun to make videos? Why? What kind of videos would you want to make?
Discuss learning with apps. Do you think this is a good app for learning? Why, or why not? What can you learn?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Subjects : Language & Reading : letter or word recognition , naming , storytelling , Math : algebra , arithmetic , Science : chemistry , Social Studies : geography
- Skills : Emotional Development : empathy , labeling feelings , Tech Skills : using and applying technology
- Pricing structure : Free to try (30-day free trial then $6.49/month)
- Release date : February 11, 2018
- Genre : Education
- Topics : Transportation ( Cars & Trucks ) , Adventures , Book Characters , Arts ( Music and Sing-Along ) , Robots
- Publisher : JoinHighbrow Limited
- Version : 1.0.11
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 10.0 or later; Android 6.0 and up
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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