DS10 and You Tube shorts WWYD

[aboveandover]

DS10 doesn't have a phone or TV (apart from living room TV) but he has an ipad which has:

Games (Rocket League etc)
Messages - to message friends and family
Apps for school homework e.g. maths

He doesn't have any You Tube apps on there (Kids YT is babyish Mum) and I've got the restricted mode on for Safari but it seems he is spending a lot of his allotted gaming time (1.5 hours several nights a week) scrolling You Tube shorts through Safari. He constantly tries to pick the ipad up to check the shorts and messages. We have timers. We do have You Tube on the lounge TV but it's PIN protected now as every time I came in the room, he had turned on Reels through 'continue watching' after the last time You Tube was on.

I am trying to curb the mindless scrolling through rubbish content as I worry about attention span/addiction. How do I approach the conversation about me wanting to disable the shorts on Safari? I know an outright ban can make him want to watch it elsewhere as all his friends watch it or he could try to watch it behind my back somehow. I could set a timer for Safari? I'm not sure if that's possible. He knows it's designed to be addictive and there's eye strain etc.

Several slots of 1.5 hours is too much I guess? Cut his access?

I feel your pain, I also have a ten year old - but... for me, in the grand scheme of things, DS is doing great in school and is a good thoughtful and considerate kid, he also will come up with ideas to do outside of screen time, such as family board games, teaching himself tunes on our piano so along as he's doing well in school and is a nice kid then I don't feel the need to restrict his access to youtube shorts :-)

Same. He's very active too.

I've had a chat with him and he agreed wants his whole time to be on the game he's playing to make the most of it. Also if he wants to watch You Tube then we have the main TV. So for now the timer on safari on his ipad is set to 0 mins. He can still watch clips his mates send him on messages.

It's all a fine line to walk isn't it?!