Parental Control - Still no movement???

[sportera]

As a previous BTV tester and current SageTV user, I though I would check back to see if any movement toward adding Parental Control to BTV. In a quick scan of recent posts, look like nuttin' happinen!

Seriously, for you dedicated BTV users, is there some process or link to the people at the top to "ask" if this is ever going to get implemented?

I was pretty impressed with BTV when I tested it. Now that Mainlobby has a BTV plugin, I'm even more interested in purchasing. But with 2 kids still at home and my #1 lady refusing to allow any TV programming without some parental filtering, BTV ain't getting loaded.

I wonder how many potential BTV buyers, like me, are sitting out there waiting.

[pdwittman]

Agreed!!!

This should be the next BIG move on forefront if you want bring this product to maturity...We can't use this system to cover the entire family's needs until you get this feature implemented.

This is coming from a household with a BTV system and 5 link boxes..My family and many others are supporting you, now please support us. I.E. Make your product capable of being mainstream!

[nanook105]

I'm sorry, but I just can't agree. My parents used "parental controls" to make sure that I only watched what was appropriate, and my wife and I also enforced "parental controls" with our three children. In my opinion, if you need BTV to enforce this, you aren't paying enough attention.

[pvrguy]

I pay a great deal of attention and I want this. The reason being is I want my techi 5 year old to learn to use it but I will not go there until I can prevent settings, channels and recordings from being accessed. I am hoping this will be a 4.8 or 4.9 addition.

Parental controls when I was a kid was having only 2 or 3 channels, no VCR and living on a farm there was work to be done first.

[nanook105]

My kids have grown up with 3 BTV servers, 5 links, and access to the internet from multiple PCs in the house. Parental control is just part of our job as parents.

[kandlg]

Ditto nanook. I have links all over the house and my kids know what they can and can't watch and they follow the rules. Interesting thing though: the neighbor kids are coming over to watch shows we let our kids watch that they aren't allowed to watch at home. That is a perfect example of why you can't count on technology to parent your children.

[pdwittman]

No one here is asking to have technology parent their children.

We have stuff on our systems that is not for others viewing, period! - children nor adults... The materials are simply for my eyes and my lady's eyes - not the babysitters, not the neighbors and not mom nor dad neither.

This is not necessarily what PC was designed for, but it will work fine nonetheless...and serve the needs of the majority of BTV users as well I'm sure.

The industry created parental control because the vast majority or people need/want it. I.E. The mainstream public...

Again, please make this product capable of being mainstream. Kind regards!

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by pdwittman

We have stuff on our systems that is not for others viewing, period! - children nor adults... The materials are simply for my eyes and my lady's eyes - not the babysitters, not the neighbors and not mom nor dad neither.

Regardless of what BTV does with parental controls, you need to get any questionable content off of your PCs. Kids are very inquisitive and will eventually find it and play it with a player of their choice. If you are really concerned about them viewing the content, you need to move it to some type of off line media.

[pdwittman]

I'll take that under advisement, thanks!

Luckily there are no keyboards/mice on any of the BTV/Link systems. But you are probably correct, that at some point they will be able to find those shares from other "regular PCs" as they get a little older. For now though, they don't spend any time on those...the only interface they see is the BTV through Firefly.

My long term goal is to eliminate off-line media all together...but it sounds too lofty of a goal for the time being as BTV is one of a few roadblocks to get past.

I'd still like to be able to lock things down though even though the kids are too young at this point to look into "our" stuff...PC would be a good method for this most would admit.

[kandlg]

What if you set up one of your links as another BTV system? The one that you and your lady access could be set up as a BTV system and off limits to the kids and has the content you don't want the kids to see and includes the normal shows on the other BTV system (shared over the network). All the links tie into the kid friendly BTV system. All objectionable material is not shared over the network and is not accessible from other PCs. The BTV system with the adult material can be password protected so a link cannot access it without a password. Not optimal, but it could work.

BTW - did not mean to imply you were not parenting. No offense intended. Kids will snoop systems and eventually defeat any technological barriers - that is the issue with counting on parental controls on a PC based system.

[pdwittman]

Thanks - not to hijack the authors thread...I suppose this is actually a potential solution to his issue.

But, would this require another BTV license or is their agreement more of a site based license for the server product?

I can't see sending them another significant pile of cash just because there product is lacking in the first place. If it had this feature I wouldn't need to jump through the hoops, have this debate nor spend more cash...

I know people who won't buy BTV based upon this lacking by the way...And I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands that I don't know who are in the same boat

[pdwittman]

Originally Posted by kandlg

Kids will snoop systems and eventually defeat any technological barriers - that is the issue with counting on parental controls on a PC based system.

Yes, I kinda of look at this like network security. You use a multi-layered approach. This feature would be one of the layers...