TiVo to Offer Tighter Rein on Children's Viewing

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TiVo to Offer Tighter Rein on Children's Viewing

Looks like Gearlive got it right: TiVo to announce Kidzone today.

In a new twist on helping parents control what children watch on television, TiVo will announce today a service that lets its video recorders limit children to watching shows approved by one of two groups promoting family programming.

Looks like that will be the big NYC announcement later this morning and as a result, no liveblogging of the event here.

by Matt Haughey March 2, 2006 in News

Comments

Ya know, if companies keep this up....hyping some big announcement and then leaving us flat I'm gonna just stop caring. Seems like bad PR to trick us into listening to their stupid announcements. Not to mention, if this stays with the typical TiVo style...they will announce it today but won't release it until November.

Posted by: Ryan at Mar 2, 2006 7:25:24 AM

Lame, lame, lame.

Posted by: Dave Zatz at Mar 2, 2006 7:40:35 AM

This is a terrible development. Which "groups promoting family programming" would these be? Most of these groups organize massive letter writing campaigns that are extremely politically motivated. They are not interested in protecting childeren, they only want to promote the agenda of the religious right wing. If they had their way all the time, TV would only have reruns of "Leave it to Beaver" and other "wholesome" programming that's devoid of any real value.

Posted by: Brian at Mar 2, 2006 7:49:29 AM

That's the big announcement? Talk about weaksauce.

I know nothing of Common Sense Media but the PTC just plain sucks, this one tiny group is responsible for 99.8% of all FCC complaints (http://robert.aitchison.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=6) and in effect controls what all of the U.S. is allowed to watch on broadcast TV or listen to on the radio.

At least this service seems to aim put the control in the hands of individual parents, rather than have the PTC decide (more than they already do anyways) still this seems like a problem in search of a solution, the TiVo Parental controls are already effective at making sure that my kids don't watch shows they shouldn't like Family Guy or South Park.

I can't help but be highly skeptical of anything that the PTC is involved in, From my perspective TiVo mighty as well have announced a new partnership with Macrovision or the MPAA, I don't even need to know what it's about to know that it's not something that I'm going to like.

Posted by: Robert Aitchison at Mar 2, 2006 8:20:53 AM

That's it? Give me a break, what a waste of time...

Posted by: SC Young at Mar 2, 2006 9:07:33 AM

"the TiVo Parental controls are already effective at making sure that my kids don't watch shows they shouldn't like Family Guy or South Park."

Tivo has Parental controls? *shrug*

Can you still record and watch those shows, without letting your kids watch them? I'm guessing no, which is what makes this new system brilliant. Yes, the conservative group suck, but you use their list as a starting point and then you can modify it to your own liking. The real innovation here is being able to fully separate the kids programming from adult programming without requiring either side to meet in the middle. Kids watch kid friendly stuff, adults watch whatever they want, everyone gets to enjoy the convenience of Tivo. I actually think this is a great way to slow down the PTC from controlling what everyone watches - now they get to feel like they have control of what kids are watching on Tivo, and the adults can happily tell them to piss off and watch whatever they want. No need to complain to the FCC about this week's Lost or 24 - the kids can't see it anyway. Any system that strengthens and simplifies parental controls weakens the PTC's position with the FCC, which is very good for those of us who like the freedom to watch whatever we want.

I do agree that this was a little weak for a special event, but it is a very cool feature nonetheless.

Posted by: Rory C. Berger at Mar 2, 2006 10:29:03 AM

"Can you still record and watch those shows, without letting your kids watch them?"

Yes, we use the existing parental controls since we have a few kids under the age of 8 and we don't really want them watching things like SNL without our supervision.

With the existing setup you can set the cutoff level (I think ours is set to block anything over PG) and to watch shows above that level you need to put in a four digit password. To tell the TiVo to record anything above the cutoff level also requires a password. Once you have put in the password, the TiVo unlocks for 4 hours or until you lock it manually.

Posted by: John M. at Mar 2, 2006 10:49:37 AM

What a waste of time. Where is the new Mac Tivo2Go? I want to be able to puty my recorded programs on my iPod. The beta has been around for awhile.

Posted by: JHBush at Mar 2, 2006 11:21:20 AM

Interesting, I guess what they already have is pretty decent. This is a bit better I think, especially for pandering to the conservative groups while maintaining true user control. It also allows you to record "Sex-Starved Sluts 9" without your kid even seeing the title/description. Not that you'd ever want to do that or anything...

Posted by: Rory C. Berger at Mar 2, 2006 11:28:59 AM

So, this is to let children watch Tivo unsupervised? Who supervises while tivo is recording the program? Tivo has to tune to the program to record it, so wouldn't anyone be able to turn on the TV at this time and see what's being recorded?

Posted by: na at Mar 2, 2006 5:01:04 PM

No, when this is enabled it also blocks 'LiveTV' unless pre-approved. So I'd presume there is some kind of "Sorry, please enter your password" screen and you don't see the recordings as they happen.

Basically it locks the user into a pre-approved sandbox where they can only access content already on the approved list.

Posted by: MegaZone at Mar 2, 2006 5:30:21 PM

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Posted by: P3E4EYvrUZ at Mar 2, 2006 5:30:27 PM

Yay! More people to control what is watched on TV!

Hey, when I was growing up, I was allowed to watch just about anytihng on TV short of Bevis and Butt-Head, and I watched that anyway. I'm not screwed up, smoking crack, and sleeping with strangers... Why? Cause as much as I can't stand my mother, I can at least give her credit for actually attempting to PARENT, unlike many people these days.
If you're kid's "good morals" can be screwed over by an hour of TV, something seriously isn't right!

Posted by: TiVo User at Mar 5, 2006 11:55:38 PM

If someone already has parental controls (i.e. Comcast digital cable), wouldn't that block shows anyway?

Or if someone has just basic cable, like me, can't a child just change TV channel to watch 'live' TV that is not going through Tivo? Like my kids do.

Posted by: l8night at Mar 7, 2006 12:54:31 PM

Some teenagers, like me are finding ways around parental controls. If your kid can use google, they certainly can crack parental control. My TV's reset code is 4357. I heard that you have to call microsoft to get a console specific code to the XBOX 360 parental control. What does that do? Is it impossible for a kid to pick up a phone and call a 1-800 number? Surely they can crack a tivo.

Posted by: Andy at Aug 3, 2006 1:06:42 AM

TiVo to Offer Tighter Rein on Children's Viewing

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