A beginner’s guide to using Parental Controls on Netflix

Since all families are different, parents need a wide choice of films and shows – as well as controls – to make the right decisions for their families. That’s why Netflix invests in a wide choice of films and shows featuring new characters, cultures and stories from all over the world – from Klaus to Mighty Little Bheem. It’s also why there are new controls for parents. 

One of the things that you can now do right away is set a PIN for each of your Netflix profiles. That way, only you can access it. Meanwhile, you can set age-appropriate maturity settings for your kids’ profiles, so they only watch shows and movies suitable for their age. You can access all these options from the “Profile and Parental Controls” hub by going to “Account” settings.

Here are a few things to know:

1. Create different profiles for different ages

Netflix supports up to 5 accounts under a single account, and, for each profile, you can set the maturity level so it only show age-appropriate shows and movies? Go to the Profiles page to add a new profile by clicking on “Add Profile”.      

You will see that a “kids” profile looks different, with an all-white background, and a selection that’s only appropriate for kids.  

2. Discover the “Profile and Parental Controls” hub

All the profile-level settings you might need to control — for your and your kids’ account — is in one place. Access it from your Account settings. From language to content restriction by age, and changing playback settings, you can do it from here.

3. Set Viewing Restrictions

After you made a separate profile for your teenage kid, or younger child, it’s time to make sure they can only access films and shows appropriate for them.  Click on “Viewing Restrictions” from the Parental Controls hub, and select the right age group. Once you do this, that profile can only see content suitable for that age. Don’t worry, your kid can’t go in and change it. It needs the account password to access.

4. Set a Profile lock

You can set an age-appropriate profile for your kid. So far, so good. But still worried that they might go into your profile instead and have access to all the shows and films? Set a 4-digit PIN for each Profile on your account. Click on “Change” under Profile Lock, select “require a PIN…” and set a 4-digit PIN.   

On the Profile page, you will now see a lock sign on your profile. And anyone trying to access it will be asked to enter the PIN.

Added tip: You want also want to select “Require PIN to add new profiles”. This prevents anyone but you from creating a new profile. So your clever teenager isn’t adding a new profile with access to all shows and movies.

5. Control your playback settings

Want to prevent your kids from watching back-to-back episodes of a series? From “Playback settings” on your Profile Hub, simply de-select “autoplay next episode”. You can even choose not to autoplay previews on a profile, simply by deselecting “autoplay previews”.   

6. Restrict specific titles

When you set age-wise profiles, Netflix does a pretty good job of deciding what shows and films are good for that age. But you can still decide that you don’t want your kid(s) to watch a particular title. From “Content Restrictions”, you can exclude a title, or a few of them, by adding them to the “title restrictions” list. It’s your family and you know what’s best for them.

7. See viewing history by profile

You can see what is being viewed from the kids’ profiles by hitting the drop down for the profile from “Profile and parental controls”, and selecting “viewing activity”. What you get is a list of movies and shows watched, by date.