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Parental Controls for TVs
If you are buying a new TV and have children
in your household, you should examine the
parental control options offered by each
model that you are considering. These options
include:
- The ability to block programs based on their
ratings.
- The ability to block selected channels.
- The ability to block usage during specified
times of the day.
For maximum flexibility, you may want all
these options. Better yet, look for the ability
to apply these rules in combination. For
example, you may want to block all shows
with certain ratings only between certain
hours (when you are not on hand to monitor
the kids’ viewing directly).
Note that certain categories of shows, like
news, weather, and sports, tend to be unrated.
Your alternatives here are typically either
to allow all unrated shows or to block them
all.
The menu for setting up and adjusting the
parental controls should be accessible through
the remote control provided by the TV manufacturer.
This menu, in turn, should be password-protected.
Be sure that the procedures for setting up
and changing the password do not have a security
loophole that tech-savvy kids can exploit.
Pay particular attention to the procedure
for retrieving or resetting a password that
you have forgotten.
Determine what parental control functionality
you have before buying. If necessary, call
the manufacturer’s technical support line
in advance of the purchase. Otherwise, you
may find that your high-end name brand TV
has insufficient control options.
Control options are also valuable for protecting
adult members of your household from self-destructive
behavior. For example, some people have become
addicted to shopping channels and/or infomercials,
spending unduly large sums. These programs
are normally unrated, so channel blocking
is needed, perhaps in tandem with time of
day blocking.
Also see our discussion of parental control software for the Internet. Some similar issues are involved. |
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