The world seemed a safer, more nurturing place for children twenty years ago.  Drugs, violence, sex, and rude, uncivil language appears to be everywhere you look.  Children are exposed to this at school and on the streets of nearly every town and city.  The one place in the world parents hope to protect their kids from these negative influential behaviors is at home.  A home is supposed to be a place full of love and nurturing.  That is until you turn on the television.  Some of the programs on television have a constant barrage of the images and sounds parents want to protect their children from.  However, television also has many, many more programs that with clean, educational content that would benefit any child.  Mothers and fathers have searched for a way to isolate only the positive shows for their kids, and thanks to modern technology their search is over.  Satellite television providers, such as DirecTV, include a Parental Controls feature within all their receivers to create safe viewing for children of any age.

Kids Watch While Parents Don’t Worry

DirecTV heard the call for a safer family environment with television, and answered by providing a Parental Controls feature to every satellite dish system they sell.  With this feature, you need only establish a PIN (Personal Identification Number), such as the one on your bank ATM card, to restrict which type of programming you would like to keep your child from viewing.  The PIN can be used to block movies and shows that have a rating that is inappropriate for the younger members of your family such as TVPG, TV14, or TVMA.  The government has now required that all television shows are given a certain rating like those given to films in order to make it easier for parents to know what is and isn’t appropriate for their family. 

DirecTV’s Parental Controls feature will also allow you to require a PIN to watch certain channels that may not be appropriate for the entire family.

Limiting Time And Money Spent

This Direct TV feature also can be used to set limited viewing times before the PIN is required to continue watching.  This prevents your child from watching television all day long and neglecting duties such as homework, household chores, or even just going outside to get some fresh air.  One concern parents always have is that they will receive their monthly bill and find an enormous amount of charges from the Pay-Per-View programs.  Direct TV understands this concern, and has provided the option to set spending limits on Pay-Per-View purchases.  Once a spending limit has been reached, a PIN is required to make any more purchases.  Also, the restricted viewing based on the ratings system that is mentioned above works with Pay-Per-View in order to keep younger eyes from purchasing the Adult Programs.

Is This Parental Controls Feature Easy To Use?

With so many options to choose from within this feature, it may sound like it would be difficult to use.  Don’t worry.  It isn’t.  Just in case you have problems following the easy-to-understand on-screen directions there are several other options for help.  One way is to tune into Channel 201 to learn how to use the Parental Controls.  Also, detailed, step-by-step tutorials are also available in the Customer Care Center, or you can look to your system manual for details.  If that isn’t working for you, then go to directv.com, select the Video Lounge, and watch the streaming video explaining how to set everything up.  Never forget, you can always call Direct TV’s toll free customer service phone number to get help with this or any other problem that may occur.