Google TV's New Parental Controls Start Rolling Out - Android

Google announced some new parental tools for Google TV earlier this month, and now those are starting to roll out in the US. Some users are reporting that new child profiles are appearing in the US. This is going to help improve how kid-friendly content is managed on Google TV. Keeping your kids from watching [...]

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The post Google TV's New Parental Controls Start Rolling Out appeared first on Android Headlines.

Google announced some new parental tools for Google TV earlier this month, and now those are starting to roll out in the US.

Some users are reporting that new child profiles are appearing in the US. This is going to help improve how kid-friendly content is managed on Google TV. Keeping your kids from watching something they shouldn't be.

With these parental controls, you can set up a kids profile, and then Google will ask you for some simple information. Like the name and age of your kid. This is needed to make specific apps available for viewing. Some of the app suggestions that Google shows includes YouTube Kids, PBS Kids, Disney Now among others.

Google also allows you to set up screen time, so that your kid(s) aren't watching to much TV. You can also enable profile locks, limit ratings in the family library, change the theme, set up YouTube Kids and much more.

In Kids mode, the Google TV home screen is pretty empty. Basically, it says "Hello, [child's name]!" and then available apps below that. And that's it. So there's none of those suggestions that you'd expect on Google TV. Though that might come later on, once it's able to learn what your kids like to watch.

How can I get parental controls on Google TV?

This appears to be a server-side switch from Google, so there's not much you can do to get the feature right now. However some have reported that a restart of their Chromecast has triggered the kids accounts to show up. That did not happen for me. So it might be hit or miss here.

If it is live on your device, you'll get a notification to set up a kids profile. If you don't want to set it up right away, you can still set one up from the "Choose your account" screen, as usual.

The post Google TV's New Parental Controls Start Rolling Out appeared first on Android Headlines.