How to Set Up Parental Controls on a TCL Smart TV

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction

In This Guide

You'll Learn:

• What parental control options are available on your Smart TV.
• The limitations of your Smart TV's parental control options.
• About different TV & Film ratings that can be used to restrict viewing options.
• How to implement parental restrictions on your Smart TV.

2. Parental Controls

Parental Controls are features available on TCL Smart TVs, that help parents reduce the risk of their children encountering unwanted or inappropriate content for their age or maturity level while watching TV or using internet apps.

Using Parental Controls is only an extra step in helping parents protect their children. Active, engaged parenting is essential in helping children develop good habits. Working with the children, talking to them and encouraging responsible behaviour is critical.

Smart TVs have become a point of convergence for all media and content sources, which allow us to enjoy all the entertainment from a single place. When it comes to configuring Parental Controls, it is important to understand the strengths and limitations that TCL Smart TV features provide:

• They provide Parental Controls for traditional TV channels received through the antenna input and streaming channels. Certain streaming channels may provide their own additional Parental Controls that can vary from one channel to another and must be configured separately.
• They do not provide Parental Controls for other external sources such as: cable boxes, satellite receivers, gaming consoles, DVD, Blu-ray and other media players. If any of those devices provide such features, they will vary from one device to another and must be configured separately.

3. TV Ratings

The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board created the TV Ratings, or the TV Parental Guidelines, to help parents determine if a program is suitable for their child to watch by outlining the show’s target audience and possible content.

The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board is a single group, and only provides opinions on content. They are there to help give you an overview of the themes present in a television program, not make decisions what is best for your child.

These ratings along with content descriptors appear in the top left corner of the TV screen during the first 15 seconds of each TV program and, on some TV channels, after every commercial break.

Rating Level

All Children

Intended for children ages 2 to 6 and is not designed or expected to frighten.

Older Children

Intended for children ages 7 and older. Best suited for children who know the difference between real life and make-believe. Contains mild fantasy or comedic violence. Some content could frighten younger children (under age 7).

General Audience

Intended for all ages. Contains little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations.

Parental Guidance

Intended for younger children in the company of an adult. Possibly contains some suggestive dialogue, infrequent coarse language, some sexual situations or some moderate violence.

Parental Caution

Intended for children ages 14 and older in the company of an adult. Possibly contains intensely suggestive dialogue, strong coarse language, intense sexual situations or intense violence.

Mature Audience

Intended for adults and may be unsuitable for children under 17. Possibly contains crude indecent language, explicit sexual activity or graphic violence.

Content Descriptor

• FV - Fantasy Violence (exclusive to the TV-Y7 rating)
• D - Sexually Suggestive Dialogue (exclusive to the TV-PG and TV-14 ratings)
• L - Course or Crude Language
• S - Sexual Situations
• V - Violence

For further information, you can always check www.tvguidelines.org from any web browser.

4. MPAA Ratings

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) created the Film Ratings to help parents determine if a film is suitable for their child to watch. Ratings are determined by the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA), via a board comprised of an independent group of parents.

The MPAA is a single group, and only provides opinions on content. They are there to help give you an overview of the themes present in a television program, not make decisions what is best for your child.

These ratings appear on all advertising materials for films, such as posters, movie trailers or online ads, on home video titles, such as DVD and Blu-Ray covers, and are listed in theaters and online streaming services when films are released.

Rating Badge

A film rating badge shows the following information:

• Rating Level on the left - indicates the films level of content so parents can decide whether the movie is suitable for their children.
• Rating Definition at the bottom - provides a more detailed explanation to parents of what the specific rating means.
• Rating Descriptors on the right - this language is unique to each film to convey the elements that caused it to receive its rating.

Rating Level

General Audience

This program is designed to be appropriate for all ages. This rating indicates a film contains nothing that would offend parents for viewing by children.

Parental Guidance

Parents are urged to give parental guidance. This film may contain some material parents might not like for their young children.

Parental Caution

Some material may not be suited for children under age 13. May contain violence, nudity, sensuality, language, adult activities or other elements beyond a PG rating, but doesn’t reach the restricted R category.

Restricted Audience

This rating is for films specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.

Adult Audience

This rating is applied to films the MPAA believes most parents will consider inappropriate for children 17 and under. It indicates that the adult content is more intense than in an R rated movie.

For further information, you can always check www.filmratings.com from any web browser.

5. Parental Controls

1. Press the Home button on the remote control.
   

1. Then go to Settings.
   

1. Select Parental Controls.
   

1. Create a new 4-digit PIN or enter your current PIN.
2. This is the Parental Controls PIN. It is different from the Roku account PIN that can be used to add or remove streaming channels from your account.
3. Here you'll find the following menu items:
   
4. Home Screen - Allows you to show or hide Movie Store & TV Store, or Featured Free items from the main menu on your home screen.
   

1. TV Tuner - Allows you to enable Parental Controls and block or unblock TV programs based on TV Ratings, Film Ratings or absence of ratings. Entering the PIN is required to watch or listen to blocked content.
   

1. Change PIN - Allows you to change the PIN.
   
2. Do not forget your PIN! Only a factory reset of the Roku TV will let you back into the parental control settings.
3. Reset parental controls - Clears all parental control settings, including the PIN.
   
4. To perform this reset you'll need to enter the PIN first.

6. Streaming Channel Rating

Each streaming channel provider is required to indicate how the content within their channel is rated. The rating information for a specific channel is shown in the Roku Channel Store as follows:

• Rated: All Ages - The channel provider states that the content within their channel is appropriate for all ages.
• Content Rated - The channel provider states that the content within their channel is rated according to the standard Film and TV ratings.
• Content Not Rated - The channel provider states that the content within their channel is not rated according to the standard Film and TV ratings.

The content description only appears when you access the Roku Channel Store from your Roku TV or player. This information does not appear when you access the channel details from channelstore.roku.com on a computer or mobile device.

To Check a Streaming Channel's Content Description

1. Press the Home button on the remote control.
   

1. Then go to Streaming Channels.
   

1. Search for the streaming channel by name or browse through the listed categories.
   

1. Select the streaming channel of your choice and check the content description.
   

1. Knowing the content rating of the selected streaming channel you can either:
2. Add it to your Roku channels, if it's not already added.
3. Remove it from your Roku channels, if it's already added.

7. Set Account PIN

You can protect your Roku account with a PIN to prevent others from making changes without your consent, such as adding or removing streaming channels or making purchases with your stored payment information.

This is the Roku account PIN. It is different from the Parental Controls PIN that can be found on your Roku TV and is used to protect parental control settings.

To Set a PIN for Your Roku Account

1. Launch the browser that you use to go online on your computer or mobile device.
   

1. Navigate to my.roku.com within the address bar.
   

1. Sign in with your Roku account.
   

1. Click or tap Update under the PIN preference heading.
   

1. Choose the Always require a PIN to make purchases and to add items from the Channel Store option, create your PIN then click or tap Save Changes.
   

1. With this setting in place, streaming channels can only be added or removed by entering the PIN.