Parental Controls

Parental controls are features which may be included in digital television services, computer and video games, mobile phones and software. Parental controls fall into roughly four categories, content filters, which limit access to age appropriate content, usage controls, which constrain the usage of these devices such as placing time-limits on usage or forbidding certain types of usage, computer usage management tools, which allow parents to enforce learning time into child computing time, and monitoring, which can track location and activity when using the devices.

Content filters were the first popular type of parental controls to limit access to Internet content. Also television stations began introducing V-Chip technology to limit access to television content. Controls are now being applied to content ranging from explicit songs to objectionable movies available for purchase online. Usage controls are increasing in sophistication; examples include turning devices off during specific times of day, limiting the volume of the music playing in the car, and with GPS technology becoming affordable, it is now possible to know where a child is at curfew.