Parental Guidance Suggested

We are to the point now where our six year old is getting pretty darn good at reading, and while we encourage all of the things that he sees that he reads because of just the fact that he loves to be right, we have a bit of a quandary on our hands when it comes to television.

Now, we've had parental blocks on our DVRs and regular cable boxes for quite some time with a 10 year old boy who obviously is well aware what "Filthy Freshman Orientation" probably means when he goes past the channels, and while it's darn near impossible to block out some of the listings, we have everything at a certain level so that if he tries to change or even if the six year old accidentally changes the channel to something inappropriate, it will prompt them for a 4 digit code before they can go any further.

Now that the six year old is reading, I'm not so sure that I feel good about him going through the menus saying the names out loud like "Cherry Busters 16" and then going "Dad, what is a cherry buster?" as my mind goes blue and my face goes red. So, what do we do? Is this something that we can request that certain channels just not be even available? I mean, as much as I'd like to, I won't ever watch the Spice or Playboy channel. Or, do we basically tell the boys that they can't even use the remote and that we have to do it so that we won't go near the channels in question?

I dunno, but I better think of something quick, or else come up with a great explanation as to what "Black Bootylicious" means.

TAGS: Being A Dad, Being A Parent, Parental Blocking, Parenting, Playboy Channel, Porn On Tv, Television
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Angela said:

Our cable's Parental Control Menu has a Hide Titles option that allows you to block titles for Adult & TV-MA programs or just the Adult ones.

Posted at 10:16 AM, on September 3 2008

2

rabrab said:

If your system has a way for you to make personalized program guides (ours does -- up to five of them beside the default "All channels" and "All subscribed") consider either making a menu for the boys or one for general use that leaves off all the channels that you never watch, or don't want to have to explain.

Posted at 10:39 AM, on September 3 2008

3

Tim said:

Good advice, I am hoping that I can certainly do this type of thing--it would be great all-around. I'll be certain to check it out as soon as possible. Thanks for the tip and thanks for reading!!

Posted at 11:38 AM, on September 3 2008

4

Tim said:

The Adult solution could be one, but as we all know, TV-MA ones can even be "risque", and since my wife and I watch a lot of scary movies and things like "Superbad", etc., it would make it hard to block all of those. At a minimum, I am going to check into at least blocking the adult titles. Thank you so much and thanks for reading!

Posted at 11:39 AM, on September 3 2008

Parental Guidance Suggested

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