Netflix is a great way for the whole family to have fun. There’s plenty of all-age content available, and you can easily find videos that are appropriate for everyone in the family.
However, if you’re going to let your child enjoy this service’s videos when they’re home alone or you can’t supervise them as you’d like to, you may want to know how to set parental controls on Netflix.
Netflix gives you multiple possibilities based on the level of protection you want for your child. These are the ways you can make sure your kid won’t access any inappropriate content while enjoying Netflix.
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Profile-Level Settings
Profile-level settings allow you to activate the maturity level option. What does this mean?
This feature filters the content available on Netflix and doesn’t show the videos that are above the maturity level you’ve chosen. Netflix does this by determining the frequency of mature content that appears in a video, as well as how it could affect a child.
Profile-level controls are also called soft controls. You still need to make sure that your child accesses Netflix content from the appropriate profile.
Note that you need to set the maturity level for each profile if you have more than one on your account. Here’s how to choose an appropriate maturity level.
- Sign in to your Netflix account and go to Manage Profiles.
- Choose the profile for which you’d like to adjust the maturity level.
- There’s a section named Allowed TV shows and movies. You can choose the maturity level here.
- When you’re done, click or tap on Save.
What are the Available Maturity Levels?
You can select one of the following options:
- For Little Kids Only: Netflix will show videos that are appropriate for all ages
- For Older Kids and Below: Netflix will show videos that older children can watch. For Netflix, Older Kids are 7+ years old
- For Teens and Below: Netflix will show videos suitable for teenagers. For Netflix, the age that belongs to this group is 13 and above
- All Maturity Levels: Netflix will show all available content. These are users who are 16+ or 18+ years old
Kids Profiles
You should be able to choose any of the levels for your profile. However, if you can’t save your choice, check if your profile is a Kids profile. This profile won’t allow maturity levels higher than Older Kids. The only way to fix this is to delete the profile and create a new one.
Also, you can’t set the main profile on your account to Little or Older Kids, just the Teen and All maturity levels.
If the changes you’ve made don’t show on the profile, refresh it by selecting another profile or signing out and in again.
Account-Level Settings
When you’ve learned how to set parental controls on Netflix, you can try to add some more security to your child’s experience. Account-level parental controls include setting up a password – a 4-digit PIN code. Your child can’t play any video that doesn’t belong to the set maturity level without typing in this code, regardless of the profile. These are also called hard controls.
You can also set this PIN code for specific content. If you don’t want your kid to watch a specific movie or a TV show, you can activate this password in a matter of seconds. The kid won’t be able to access it even if the content belongs to the selected maturity level.
Setting the PIN for Maturity Levels
Here’s how to set up the PIN code that prevents your child from accessing inappropriate maturity levels.
- Launch a browser and log into your account.
- Open Settings and click or tap on the Parental controls link.
- Type in your Netflix password. Choose Continue.
- Type your four-digit PIN code. No letters are allowed.
- Select the protection level from the given options (Little Kids, Older Kids, etc.)
- Select Save to complete.
- Setting the PIN for Specific Content
If you want to protect a particular movie or a TV show with a PIN, do the following:
- Sign in to your Netflix account.
- Select Settings and open the Parental controls link.
- Enter your password and click or tap on Continue.
- Set up a four-digit PIN code. If you already have a PIN, enter it.
- Enter the title of the desired video in the Enter show or movie name field. Select the title when the suggestion appears.
- Click or tap Save to confirm your choices.
Recovering or Changing the PIN
When your child tries to play a PIN-protected video, Netflix will ask them to enter the PIN. Make sure they don’t discover it, or that you don’t forget it. In case you do, you can recover it this way:
Click on the blue link that says Forgot PIN?
- You’ll be redirected to the Netflix Sign In page,
- or you’ll be asked to type in your password right where you are
If you end up on the Sign In page
- Enter your email and password and choose a new PIN after you log in
- If you’re asked to type in your password on the same page, do it and then choose a new PIN code on the next page.
You can also use the Forgot PIN? option to set a new one, in case your child discovers your PIN.
Note that you can also remove a PIN or unblock particular videos you no longer consider inappropriate. To remove a PIN, change the maturity level of the profile to Adults so that you can watch anything with no PIN required. If you want to unblock a video, go to Parental Control settings in the Account menu and click or tap on the X next to the movie or TV show title.
Possible Issues for Netflix to Work On
When your child gets old enough, they might learn how to switch profiles. Unfortunately, there’s still no option of protecting the whole profile with a PIN.
Also, if you have two or more kids, the content they’ll want to watch might not be the same if they’re not the same or similar age. The fact that the maturity level applies to all the profiles in one account might represent an issue even when you know how to set parental controls on Netflix.
However, it’s good to use the provided layers of security to protect your child from inappropriate content for a while.
