Use parental controls on Google TV

You can make a children's profile on Google TV to choose which apps your kids can use. You can also set bedtime reminders and limit screen time.

What's on the Google TV children's profiles home screen

Important: Children's profiles may not be available in some regions or on some devices.

What you find on the Google TV home screen depends on where you live and the language you choose for your device.

If you use a Google TV device in a country or region other than the one where you purchased it, your experience may vary.
In some regions or territories, your experience may vary.

Alternatively, you can restrict access to your home screen when you set up a profile lock.

What you’ll find

Your apps: Apps that a parent has allowed during onboarding or in the settings.
Popular movies and/or popular shows row(s): Popular family-friendly recommendations based on the apps that a parent has allowed. These apps aren't personalised and are based on the most popular titles available.
App-powered rows: Family-friendly recommendations from family-friendly apps that a parent has allowed.
Family Library rows: Purchased films and shows that the parent has shared through Family Library and that follow the content restriction setting made by the parent.

Add a children's profile

From the Google TV home screen, go to your profile picture or initial.
Under 'Choose an account', select Add account Add a child.
Select an option:
- If your child has a Google Account or children's profile in your family group: Select the child that you want to set up.
- If you haven’t set up a child in your family group: Select Add a child and follow the on-screen instructions.
Choose the apps that you want to include in the child's home screen.
To set up parental controls, follow the on-screen instructions.

Tip: To switch to a children's profile, go to your profile picture or initial on the Google TV homescreen and select the child's profile.

Set up a children's profile lock

With a children's profile lock, you have to enter the adult’s Google Account PIN or password to exit a children's profile. This is the same PIN or password that you use for Google Pay, Profile lock and other Google services.

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile Child lock.
To turn on 'Child lock', verify your identity and enter your Google Account PIN or password.

Choose what and when your children can watch

Allow or block content or apps

Allow or hide apps

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile.
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select Manage apps.
- To allow apps: Next to the app, tick the blue box. Apps are installed automatically.
- To hide apps: Next to the app, untick the blue box.

Allow or block content based on rating

You can restrict what movies and shows appear in a children's profile when you set content restrictions for their account.

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile.
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select Content restrictions.
Set the ratings limits for Movies and TV.

What these content restrictions apply to:

Google’s movie and show recommendations, which include the 'Popular movies' and 'Popular shows' recommendations, on children's profiles.
Content shared through your Family Library. Learn more about Family Library.

What they don't apply to:

Content recommendations directly provided by apps
Search results from apps

Tip: Apps may offer their own content restriction options.

Set a daily screen time limit

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile.
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select Screen time Daily limit.
Select the days that you’d like to schedule a daily limit.
Choose how many hours your child can watch TV each day.
- You can set limits in intervals of 15 minutes, up to eight hours.

Set a daily bedtime

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile.
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select Screen time Bedtime.
Select the days that you’d like to schedule a bedtime.
Select when your child’s TV time should start and end.
- Times are available in intervals of 30 minutes.

Add bonus time

When the daily watch time for your child ends, you can add bonus time:

From the timeout screen, select More time .
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select how much bonus time to add.
- You can add bonus time in intervals of 15 minutes, up to eight hours.

Manage your child's watchlist

Parents in a Google family group can add/remove movies and shows to/from their child’s watchlist to easily find content that they want them to watch later. This can be done from the parent profile, children's profiles or on a web browser that's signed in with your child’s Google Account. Watchlists update across all of the devices that your child is signed in to when you add something to them.

Find your child’s watchlist

Use one of the following options to find your child's watchlist:

In a parent profile, go to the Library tab.
In the children's profile home screen, locate your child’s watchlist.
In a web browser signed in with your child’s Google Account, search for: my watchlist.

Tip: A watchlist must have at least one movie or show to appear.

Add/remove movies and shows to/from a child’s watchlist

From a parent profile on a Google TV device:

From the home screen, find a title that you want to add to their watchlist.
On your remote, press and hold the Select button.
Select Add to watchlist .
Choose the children's profile on the device to which you wish to add your movie or show.
- The added movie or show will appear on the watchlist row in the children's profile that you specified and on all of the devices that your child is signed in to.
To remove a movie or show from a children's profile, select Watchlisted the children's profile.
- The movie or show will be removed from the watchlist row in the children's profile that you specified and from all of the devices that your child is signed in to.

From children's profiles on a Google TV device:

From the home screen, find a title that you want to add to their watchlist.
On your remote, press and hold the Select button.
Select Add to watchlist .
- The added movie or show will now appear on the watchlist row and across all of the devices that your child is signed in to.
To remove, select Watchlisted .
- The movie or show will now be removed from the watchlist row across all of the devices that your child is signed in to.

In a web browser signed in with your child’s Google Account:

On your web browser, go to google.com.
Search for a title.
Select Want to watch .
- The added movie or show will appear on the watchlist row and on all of the devices your child is signed in to.

Use parental controls on YouTube

Set up supervised accounts for YouTube

You can set up supervised accounts on YouTube for children under 13 (or the relevant age in your country). Supervised accounts link to a parent's Google Account. Learn more about pre-teen supervised experiences on YouTube.

On your phone or computer, go to g.co/YourFamily.
Sign in to the Google Account that you use to manage your child’s account.
Select a child account from your family group.
- If you have a Google children's profile, then you may be prompted to create a Gmail address for your child. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Select Go to Family Link Content restrictions YouTube.
Select YouTube and YouTube Music (parent supervised) and follow the on-screen instructions.

Hide or unhide library content

Hide library content

From your child’s profile, highlight the content that you want to hide.
On your remote, hold the select button.
Select Hide.

Unhide library content

From the Google TV home screen, select All settings Accounts and profiles.
Select your child's profile.
Enter your Google Account PIN or password.
Select Hidden films and TV shows.
Find and select the content that you want to unhide.
To unhide the content, select Show.

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