A giant cat will block your social media if you scroll too long
If willpower alone isn't enough to pull you away from your social media feeds, a Japanese developer has a different approach: a chubby, animated cat that sits on your screen and refuses to leave. Cat Gatekeeper is a free Chrome extension built by developer ZOKUZOKU (@konekone2026), and it went viral fast — the launch post on X racked up over 4.5 million views and 120,000 likes within days.
How it works
You install the extension, set a daily time limit for whichever platforms you want to track, and go about your day. Once the timer expires, a large, drowsy cat stretches across the middle of your screen and blocks the page. The default is 60 minutes of browsing before a 5-minute forced break kicks in, but both values are fully adjustable.
The cat only appears on the specific tab you've been using — switch to a different tab and it stays away. You can dismiss it, but the extension logs that as a break in your streak, making guilt the real enforcement mechanism. There are no ads, and per the Chrome Web Store listing, no data is collected.
What it covers
Cat Gatekeeper currently supports YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok, with Facebook, Reddit, Threads, and Bluesky shown in developer screenshots as works in progress. That covers most of the sites where doomscrolling tends to happen.
It sits in different territory from heavier blockers like Freedom or Cold Turkey — there's no hard lock, no subscription fee, and no configuration beyond a couple of sliders. The approach is closer to a gentle, slightly embarrassing nudge than a firewall.
The extension settings let you adjust daily time limits and break durations per platform.
Availability
Cat Gatekeeper is live now on the Chrome Web Store for free, available globally. ZOKUZOKU has said a Firefox port is planned but hasn't given a release date. There's no mobile version in the works yet, so this one stays on desktop for now. If you're the kind of person who keeps YouTube or Instagram open in a browser tab all day, it's worth the two-minute install — as Dexerto noted, the appeal is exactly how little it asks of you.