- Netflix announced a series of new parental controls features for its streaming service on Tuesday.
- Parents now have the ability to remove individual shows and movies from a Netflix profile so that they won’t appear in any of the suggested lists or search results.
- Auto play of episodes can also finally be turned off in kids profiles.
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As the novel coronavirus outbreak forces millions of us to stay inside, streaming service usage has skyrocketed. We have so much time on our hands to watch shows and movies, as do the countless children staying home from school until the virus has been contained. But now that your kids are likely parked in front of the TV for hours every day, it’s more important than ever to monitor what they watch, especially if you’re in another room trying to get some work done. As such, Netflix’s latest parental control features couldn’t have come at a better time.
The most noteworthy addition is the ability to use the country’s rating system to filter out content you don’t want your child to see. If you do not want anything geared toward adults to show up on a profile, just choose to block all R-rated content. You can also remove individual shows or movies by title. If you don’t want your kids to stumble upon Narcos, but would rather not block everything with a similar rating, you can choose to make sure that individual series will not appear on that profile. If you are willing to take the time to sift through Netflix’s huge library, you can tailor a profile to only feature content that you’re comfortable with your kid watching.
Here are some of the other features that Netflix added to its streaming service for parents this week:
- PIN protect individual profiles to prevent kids using them
- Easily review each profile’s setting using the “Profile and Parental Controls” hub within account settings
- See what their kids have been watching within the profile created for them
- Turn off auto play of episodes in kids profiles
“Everyone can now add these new, improved controls to their profile by going to account settings on our mobile or laptop,” explained Michelle Parsons, Kids Product Manager at Netflix, in a blog post today on the company’s website. “Choice and control have always been important for our members, especially parents. We hope that these additional controls will help parents make the right choices for their families.”
With in-person classes likely over in many states for the remainder of the school year, parents are going all of the help that they can get to keep their children safe and entertained. With these new features, parents can at least feel a little better about leaving their kids in charge of the remote for a few hours.
