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TED-Ed
By TED Conferences (nonprofit). Visit TED-Ed
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
TED's education arm, with short animated video lessons on science, history, math, literature and thinking skills, sorted by subject and student level from elementary to college. Each lesson can come with questions, extra reading and discussion prompts, and teachers can build their own lessons around any video and share them with a class. TED-Ed also runs Student Talks, a program that helps students prepare and give their own TED-style talks.
Our take: A reliable free video library for upper elementary through high school, best watched with a teacher's or parent's questions.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads or chat; a 'Sign in' prompt and links out to social media and Patreon. |
|---|---|
| Data: 3 out of 5 | Twitter/X's analytics and ad pixel (analytics.twitter.com, static.ads-twitter.com) and New Relic monitoring loaded before consent; no ad networks. |
| Ease: 4 out of 5 | Big lesson cards with subject filters and a clear 'See all lessons' button; best for readers 9 and up. |
| Cost honesty: 4 out of 5 | Free lessons; a Patreon support link was the only money ask seen. |
What we found
- 12 third-party sites contacted; 4 trackers (Twitter/X analytics and ads pixel, New Relic), no ad networks
- 14 cookies set before consent, 2 from third-party domains (t.co, twitter.com)
- 0 ad frames; lesson videos are hosted on YouTube (i.ytimg.com thumbnails)
- Sign-in and sign-up prompts detected; 7 outbound link sites
From the test: Free animated lessons with no ads on the page, though a Twitter/X tracking pixel loads on the first visit.
| Ages it suits | about 9-18 |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Under 13 may watch but may not create a TED account; accounts are 13+, or 16+ in the EU without verifiable parental consent. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free (Oct 2026); a shop sells TED-Ed products. |
| Works on | Web, iPhone and iPad |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI. |
What's good
- High-quality, short animated lessons
- Free with no account needed to watch
- Teachers can wrap questions around any video
- Student Talks builds speaking skills
Watch for
- Videos are hosted on YouTube
- Under-13s cannot have accounts
- Some topics suit teens more than young kids
- TED privacy policy allows ad cookies on TED sites
Data and privacy
TED says it does not sell personal data, but its sites use analytics, pixels and some behavioral and programmatic advertising cookies; videos play through YouTube, where Google's policies apply. No COPPA-specific statement beyond the under-13 account ban. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
The maker's own claims only; we found no independent study.
In the Big Index
- On the list 12 videos that explain AI to kids
- On the list Top 50 free learning sites for kids (2026)
- On the list 33 best educational YouTube channels, by age
- On the list The 12 best YouTube channels for learning in 2026
- TED-Ed
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Where these facts come from
- https://ed.ted.com/
- https://ed.ted.com/lessons
- https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-com-terms-of-use
- https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/privacy-policy
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ted-ed-community/id1529333486
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.