Isn’t the internet somewhat of a modern blessing? Everything in the world is just a tap away. You can be residing in Virginia and have an original Versace delivered to your doorstep. You can be a sixty-year-old grandma and start learning German if you want to. You can be a nineteen-year-old and start a home bakery. You can be anyone and do anything in this era of the internet.
The fact that the internet knows no bounds is one of its attributes; however, it can be troublesome for parents and teachers. Nowadays, children get internet access long before they can understand principles, morals, and the difference between right and wrong. This accessibility can be a risk as kids are vulnerable; and can fall for scams and other immoral activities. However, the idea of parental controls helps parents and teachers manage the content and websites being accessed by children. Like cable providers, some ISPs including Spectrum and Grande also offer parental control options to the users for complete authorization of the accessed content.
In this article, we have put together a guide to parental controls.
Parental Controls
Parental Controls are settings that help you manage and control the content that your child can access. When you combine these settings with privacy settings, you can protect your child from experiencing any besmirched content online.
Functions of Parental Controls
Parental controls can be managed within your internet service provider, your network, your web browsers, your streaming platforms, etc. You can perform the following functions with parental controls:
- Block or control obscene or mature video games
- Restrict web browsers to display appropriate websites only
- Restrict children from accessing certain websites
- Control web browsers to restrict children’s online search
- Control the types of searchable videos.
A study shows the following statistics about parental controls:
- Nine out of ten parents using parental controls consider it worthwhile
- 65 percent of kids aged between 11 and 16 favor parental controls
- 15 percent of teens approve of the use of parental controls and believe that they should only be taken away when they turn 18.
How to Set up Parental Controls on Internet Browsers?
Google Chrome
- If you have a Google account, sign into it. If not, sign up and create one
- Select ‘Settings’ from the main menu that you can access by clicking the three vertical dots on the top-right corner
- Select the ‘People’ section
- Click on ‘Add person’, add a name for the new user, and select a picture
- Check the checkbox next to ‘Control and view the websites this person visits
- Select ‘Add’ to open a new Chrome window
- After creating your child’s profile, click on ‘Supervised Users Dashboard’ and select ‘My Child’
- In the ‘Permissions’ section, you can implement parental control settings.
For more details, you can visit Google Support.
Firefox
Firefox is one of those browsers that check parental control settings automatically on your device. It sets itself to a Prefer: Safe mode. If you have activated parental controls on your PC, Firefox will autotune in the safety settings on every website the child visits.
For more details, you can visit Firefox Support.
Google SafeSearch
- Visit Search settings from Google browser
- Check the checkbox beside ‘Turn on SafeSearch’ under the ‘SafeSearch filters’
- Save the changes at the foot of the page.
For more details, you can visit Google Support.
Bing
- Visit Bing settings
- Select ‘Strict’ under the ‘SafeSearch’ section
- Save the changes at the foot of the page.
For more details, you can visit Bing Support.
Yahoo
- Go to Yahoo browser
- Go to ‘Settings’ at the foot of the page
- Select ‘Preferences’
- Once you have chosen your SafeSearch preference, click on ‘Done’.
For more details, you can visit Yahoo Help.
Set up Parental Controls on Video Streaming Sites
YouTube
- Sign in to your YouTube account
- Go to the top right corner of the screen and tap on your profile picture
- Select ‘Restricted Mode’, a drop-down menu will appear
- Toggle the ‘Activate Restricted Mode’ on the drop-down menu.
For more details, you can visit YouTube Help.
Netflix
Netflix comes with a variety of parental controls to choose from. The types of parental controls are:
Little Kids – The library consists of shows and movies that are marked ‘all ages’ only.
Older Kids – The library consists of shows and movies that are marked for ‘all ages’, ‘7+’, and some ‘13+’ content.
Teens – The library consists of shows and movies that are marked appropriate for 13+ teens only.
Adults – The library consists of all shows and movies available on the platform.
Netflix also allows you to set up a four-digit PIN required to access any content above your selected parental control level.
An advanced feature is to set up a four-digit PIN that needs to be entered when accessing specific media content on any profile so that your child has no means to watch inappropriate content for his/her age.
Steps to set up your PIN
- Open your Account page
- Go to Settings and choose ‘Parental controls’
- Enter your login credentials to proceed. Select ‘Continue’
- In the PIN field, enter four numbers that you want as your PIN
- Click on ‘Save’.
Steps to set up the maturity level
- Open your Account page
- Click on ‘Manage Profiles’
- Choose the profile you want to edit
- Select your preferred maturity level under ‘Allowed movies and TV shows.
For Little Kids only: TV-G, TV-Y, and G
For Older Kids and below: TV-Y7-FV, TV-Y7, TV-PG, and PG
For Teens and below: TV-14, PG-13
All Maturity Ratings: NC-17, TV-MA, R
- Click on ‘Save’
For more details, you can visit Netflix Help.
Hulu
Parental control settings of Hulu depend on the age that is associated with your Hulu account. User profiles under the age of 17 are not allowed to access mature (R or TV-MA shows) content.
If your device has some parental control settings of its own already set up, Hulu will abide by them.
If you are a subscriber of Hulu Plus, you can set up a profile for your child in the ‘Hulu Kids’ section.
For more details, you can visit Hulu Help.
