During this COVID-19 crisis more and more people who are staying at home are using streaming services like Netflix. With lots of families using these streaming services, how do you make sure that your children only watch what is suitable for them? Well, that is where parental controls come in to play and Netflix has just updated theirs.
The following was posted on their blog.
Parents can now:
* PIN protect individual profiles to prevent kids from using them
* Tailor their kids Netflix experience by filtering out titles that are not appropriate for their age. We’ve built these filters using country ratings so they are more intuitive;
* Remove individual series or films by title. When this filter is used, the blocked title(s) won’t show up anywhere in that profile.
* 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; and
* Turn off autoplay 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.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO TURN ON UPDATED FEATURES
Setting up Profile Lock
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Selects the primary profile on the account
3. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
4. Finds their profile in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
5. Locates Profile Lock in the list of options and clicks “Change”
6. Is prompted for Netflix account password and enters it.
7. Ticks the box to require a PIN to access their profile, a PIN box appears
8. Enters a PIN
9. Ticks a box to also require the PIN to add new profiles to the account
10. Presses the Submit button
11. After saving, is navigated back to Account Settings
12. Returns to Profile Gate, lock affordance is now on their profile
13. Clicks their profile to access it
14. Is prompted for their 4-digit PIN
15. Enters PIN
16. Is allowed access to the profile
Setting up Profile Lock for other profiles
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate after setting up their own Profile Lock
2. Selects the primary profile on the account
3. Is prompted for their PIN and enters it
4. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
5. Find the profile they wish to edit in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
6. Locates Profile Lock in the list of options and clicks “Change”
7. Is prompted for Netflix account password and enters it
8. Ticks the box to require a PIN to access their profile, a PIN box appears
9. Enters a PIN
10. Presses the Submit button
11. After saving, is navigated back to Account Settings
12. Returns to Profile Gate, lock affordance is now on the profile they edited
13. Clicks the profile to access it
14. Is prompted for their 4-digit PIN
15. Enters PIN
16. Is allowed access to the profile
Setting up Viewing Restrictions for a Kid
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Selects the new profile (Sam) and views the content within (to show it’s Adult)
3. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access their profile
4. Is prompted for their Profile Lock PIN, enters it
5. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
6. Find the profile they wish to edit in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
7. Locates Viewing Restrictions and clicks “Change”
8. Is prompted for the account password, enters it
9. Uses the rating scale to select PG/TV-PG
10. Ticks the box for “Show Kids Experience”
11. Presses the submit button and is navigated back to Account Settings
12. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to select the affected profile
13. A Kids profile is now shown with Kids content reflected
Using Viewing Restrictions to age up a profile
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Clicks Manage Profiles button
3. Edit states are revealed, and member selects profile they wish to edit
4. The Edit Profile screen is shown
5. Member clicks EDIT under the Viewing Restrictions portion
6. Is prompted for Netflix account password, enters it
7. Uses the rating scale to select NC-17
8. Presses submit button and are navigated back to Account Settings
Accessing Viewing History for Kids Profile
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Selects the primary profile on the account
3. Is prompted for their PIN and enters it
4. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
5. Find the profile they wish to edit in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
6. Locates Viewing History and clicks “View”
7. Reviews the profile’s viewing history
Disabling Autoplay on a Kids Profile
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Selects the primary profile on the account
3. Is prompted for their PIN and enters it
4. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
5. Find the profile they wish to edit in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
6. Locates Playback Settings and clicks “change”
7. Unticks the box for Autoplay Next Episode and Autoplay Previews
8. Clicks submit button and are navigated back to Account Settings
9. Uses the dropdown menu in the top-right corner to access the Kids profile
10. Navigates to a series and clicks play on an episode
11. Scrubs to the end of the episode
12. Shows that episode ends and does not autoplay
Disabling previews Instructions:
1. Member starts at profile gate
2. Accesses a profile on the account
3. Shows that the Billboard canvas automatically plays a trailer
4. Uses the dropdown menu in the top-right corner to select Manage Profiles
5. Is navigated to Profile Gate in an edit state
6. Selects their profile
7. Unticks the box for autoplay previews and presses save
8. Presses down on the Manage Profiles screen
9. Selects their profile
10. Shows the Billboard no longer autoplays previews
Removing specific titles from a profile
Instructions:
1. Member (account owner) starts on Profile Gate
2. Selects the primary profile on the account
3. Is prompted for their PIN and enters it
4. Uses the dropdown in the top-right corner to access Account Settings
5. Find the profile they wish to edit in the Profile Hub and expands the accordion
6. Locates Viewing Restrictions and clicks “Change”
7. Is prompted for their Netflix account password and enters it
8. Enters a title to restrict in the Title Restrictions section
9. The title is added to the restricted titles list
10. Clicks submit and are navigated back to Account Settings
11. Uses the dropdown in the top-right to select the profile they just edited
12. Clicks on search and searches for the title they just restricted
13. Shows that the title does not appear in the Search Results