The TV has long been known as the idiot box. Your average village idiot could never bag a hot date with a smart lady but the idiot box has fared much better! The idiot box has been seen hobnobbing with some very smart gadgets: Cable/Dish boxes, game consoles and DVD players. Lately, it has been spotted in even more esteemed company: Apple TV, Smart Blu-Ray players and Google’s Chromecast. Good for the TV! But, this presents a danger to our protection plans. Let us enforce our 3-layer idiot-proof security system to protect the idiot box.
Security Layer One: Placement of the TV
As parents, we strive to fulfill every wish of our children but we strongly discourage having a TV in their bedrooms. A TV should be a means of getting the family together, not isolate them. A good place for a TV should be the family room. It is called the ‘family room’ for a reason!
Security Layer Two: Parental Controls
Year 2000 not only ushered in a new millennium, but it also ushered in the V-Chip, a device inside all TV’s that can control content on the TV based on ratings. All TV’s now have parental controls. You can choose the type and rating of content you want to block. The same is true for most devices that connect to the TV: game consoles, DVD/Blu-Ray players, Apple TV.
To enable parental Controls simple go into your device’s settings and choose parental controls. It will ask you to choose a passcode or password. Choose a strong passcode, confirm it and you are done!
What about Google Chromecast?
Google’s Chromecast does not have any parental controls but do not fret. The only way to choose or change programming on a Chromecast is by a computer or mobile device. This way you have control on what it plays.
Security Layer 3: Secure each app separetely
This step is often overlooked. Parental controls on your TV and connected devices are a good first step but they do not block content within an app or a stream. For example, a Smart Blu-Ray player may be able to stream Netflix but may not be able to block adult content within Netflix. We suggest examining each stream or app carefully. If you suspect it to have adult content, visit its website to look up parental controls. Each app will be different. We will take Netflix as an example.
Netflix profiles
Netflix definitely had adult content. Visiting its website you will notice that you can create profiles and setup parental controls for each profile? Sounds safe, correct? Think again! Surprisingly, once logged in, one can switch between profile easily. What this means is that you kid can easily change to your profile without even entering a password. There are two ways around this:
- Method 1: Setup parental controls on all your counts. This will block mature content on all your profiles and you will not need to log off every time. This will work as long as you do not wish to watch blocked content yourself. If you do, then you will need to undo parental controls for your profile from the Netflix website. Please keep in mind that these effects may take up to 8 hours to process.
- Method 2: log off from Netflix every time you are done watching. This way your kids will need you to enter your password everytime they watch Netflix
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