Netflix rolls out tighter parental controls

As children spend more time indoors looking for entertainment, Netflix has announced new ways for parents to control what they are watching.

The streaming company launched new and improved parental controls on Tuesday, at a time when millions of families across the world spend more time watching television due to citywide shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

From Wednesday, April 8, Netflix will allow parents, or anyone really, to protect any profiles on an account via a pin so children can't access them.

The controls also let parents filter out titles that are not appropriate for their children's ages, by removing series or films by title from a particular profile. The shows won't show up even if the children search for them.

Parents will also be able to easily review a profile's setting and see what their children have been watching through their profile. The setting also allows parents to turn off auto-play in their offspring's profiles.

Previously, families could only control what their children could watch via a four-digit PIN that needed to be entered to play titles above a certain maturity level.

"Every family is different," said Michelle Parsons, kids product manager at Netflix. "It's why we're investing in a wide variety of kids and family films and TV shows from all over the world – including award-winning animated films such as Klaus, series including Mighty Little Bheem and interactive shows such as Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal.

"It’s why we also give parents the controls they need to make the right decisions for their families.

"Choice and control have always been important for our members, especially parents. We hope that these additional controls will help parents make the right choices for their families."

To add the new and improved controls, users have to go their account settings on their mobile or laptop.