Netflix is the biggest online streaming channel that has been streamed over 382.08 million times to date. What’s even more interesting is that 35.2 percent of the total streams originate only from U.S. While streaming Peppa and Pig to keep your three-year-olds busy is a nice hack that could buy you some time to perform house chores, it gets problematic when your kids come across stuff that they shouldn’t, ever, like watching adult content on Netflix.
We understand that it’s not possible to sit with the kids all the time, so if they are going to watch Netflix, we can’t hold onto the TV remote controller to ensure that they don’t stream something inappropriate.
Therefore, we have created this detailed guide that will help you use the inbuilt parental control on Netflix. With this guide, you will be able to cut down on the chances of exposing your kids to unsuitable or adult content.
These are a few things that you have to do:
Have a passcode on Netflix
The most convenient way to avoid your kids from getting into the abyss of adult content is by setting up a passcode on your Netflix account. To create a PIN, do the following:
- Login into your Netflix and go to your account.
- On the “Account” page, go to “Settings” and look for the “Parental Controls” tab,
- On the Parental Controls” section, you will need to provide your Netflix password. Doing so will take you to another page where you will determine the content rating that you find suitable for your kids. You will set a PIN here to avoid your kids from changing the settings on your Netflix account.
- Once you have made the changes, they will apply on all the gadgets that are using the same account.
- It could take as much as eight hours for your account changes to take effects, but if you want to speed up the process, you can also sign out and then sign in to your account again.
What are the different content ratings available on Netflix?
There are four different ratings or “maturity levels” available on Netflix. These levels are set very intuitively to help parents understand what their children should be allowed to watch.
- Little Kids: With this level on your Netflix, only those TV shows and movies will be available for streaming that are suitable for few-year-olds.
- Older Kids: This level allows streaming of TV shows and movies for older kids.
- Teens: This Netflix rating would only stream movies and TV shows that are suitable for teens.
- Adult: This rating lists all the TV shows and movies available on Netflix, including adult content.
How to create individual profiles for each child?
It’s possible for you to set up a different profile for each child according to their age. This could be done on the same page where you set the PIN code after choosing the maturity level. It’s possible for you to set different profile for every child and when Netflix would ask you “Who is watching”, you could tap on the profile for the relevant child.
However, this isn’t one of the best strategies, Netflix doesn’t ask for any passwords while switching from one profile to another. So if you have teens who know how to switch between different user profiles, they could easily sneak into your profile in your absence. This has been such a real concern that parents have filed a petition for Netflix to change their service settings that would ask for a PIN code every time a user profile is switched.
The other solution is to have different Netflix subscriptions for your kids, but that wouldn’t just be feasible, at all!
No other options available on Netflix parental controls
The sad part is that there are no other parental control options available on Netflix. So if there is a certain show that you don’t want your kids to stream, or if you feel like that there is some specific show that your child should be allowed to stream, you will have to block/grant the complete access.
Netflix built-in parental controls have too many loopholes, and that’s why parents need to take other measures to ensure their kids won’t stream adult content.
Monitor what your teens are streaming on Netflix
Netflix gives you the option to view the streaming activity of all the devices that are using your subscription. You can find the whole family streaming activity under the “Viewing Activity” tab. This way, you can know what your child had been streaming when you weren’t there.
Kids know a simple solution to stream adult content. They wait till you change the settings back to Adult maturity level. So even if they have gone to bed, they can still stream inappropriate content from their gadgets. In some cases, your kids may have no intend to stream adult content, but even after that, they might get across such content.
You can use a parental control app like Trackmyfone to block Netflix and other apps on their cell phones and tablets that may not be suitable for their age. It’s your responsibility to take care of the loopholes that could grant your kids access to adult content. And if you fear that your kids could be streaming adult content on their personal iPad’s or iPhone’s internet browser, you could also monitor their web browsing history with Trackmyfone.
Netflix is a great platform for the entire family to stream movies and TV shows, but with the use of right parental controls, it’s possible to avoid your kids taking advantage of Netflix or other features on their personal gadgets.
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