Netflix’s Enhanced Parental Controls Now Let You Fully Block TV Shows, Movies From Kids’ Profiles
By Todd Spangler
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – As millions of kids are stuck at home, Netflix has released an update to its parental controls with a range of new features — including the ability to completely block individual TV series or films from showing up in a child’s profile.
Parents and guardians can now choose to remove individual series or films by title for any kids’ profile, so that they won’t show up anywhere in that profile. Previously, Netflix has offered account-level restrictions requiring that a kids’ profile enter a PIN to play TV shows or movies above a selected maturity rating .
Another new feature: Netflix customers can set a PIN password for any individual profile — to prevent kids from using them. In addition, Netflix now lets parents see a history of what their kids have watched (and when) within their profiles; parents also can now disable autoplay of episodes in kids’ profiles.
Finally, Netflix is expanding its feature that lets parents and guardians filter out titles in kids’ profiles “that are not appropriate for their age” based on country-specific ratings systems.
“Choice and control have always been important for our members, especially parents,” Michelle Parsons, Netflix’s global product manager for kids programming, said in a statement. “We hope that these additional controls will help parents make the right choices for their families.”
Netflix account owners can access profile-management settings by clicking “More” in the app or by selecting “Manage Profiles” from the drop-down menu in a web browser.
The streamer’s move to bulk up features to help parents and guardians better manage what kids can access on the service got a thumbs-up from Stephen Balkam, founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. “Netflix’s parental controls give parents and families the ability to shape the experience they want their kids to have on Netflix, and help keep them safe,” Balkam said in a statement.
