Smarter, Safer Streaming with the Parental Control Feature Upgrade
Streaming should be safe, seamless and stress-free. Families want peace of mind, and platform operators need confidence in compliance. That’s why we’ve upgraded our parental control feature to make safer, age-appropriate streaming easier to deliver, manage, and trust on every screen.
What’s New with Parental Control?
Our enhanced parental control feature goes beyond PIN prompts. It introduces rating system flexibility, richer content metadata, and more control for both operators and end users.
For OTT operators:
- Enable national rating systems by region
- Add rating levels, advisory reasons, and icons to content
- Stay compliant with regional regulatory frameworks
For end users:
- View content ratings and details like ‘violence’, ‘nudity’, or ‘strong language’ before pressing play
- Set PIN prompts based on specific content ratings
- Manage parental settings easily in their user account
Why Parental Controls Matter for Your OTT Service
- Friction-Free Compliance: Meet age-appropriateness rules with built-in flexibility
- Trust & Transparency: Clear ratings and advisory info build viewer confidence
- Better UX for Families: Parents get the control they want without complexity
How the Parental Control Feature Works
Parental Control is adaptable and easy to configure, whether you’re protecting live content, catch-up, or on-demand video.
Operator setup:
- Enable it in Console > Default Settings > Content > Parental Control
- Choose from flexible logic options:
- Watershed: PINs required for linear content between 22:00–06:00, including catch-up content. Can also be enabled for specific channels by setting “verify age” to yes.
- Around the clock: Ideal for VOD – PIN prompts appear based on age ratings set in metadata.
- Age limit: A global setting that enforces PIN prompts for content at or above a specified PG age.
- Enabled by default: Automatically turns parental control ON for all new users upon registration.
- Optional parental control: Allows end users to enable or disable parental control from their account settings.
- Enable one or more rating systems, and define a fallback system for countries where no rating system is configured. (If no rating level is set for a region, no rating will display for that content.)
- Tag each asset with rating levels and advisory reasons (e.g., “violence”, “language”) via metadata.
User configuration:
Users can manage their own parental control settings directly from their account, allowing them to tailor PIN prompts and content access based on their preferences.
- Set personal PIN prompt thresholds based on rating level
- Receive/reset PINs via email for secure verification
- See rating level and content reasons before watching
- Toggle parental control on/off (if allowed by platform settings)
Available On:
Our enhanced Parental Control feature is available across all Magine Pro applications:
- Web, mobile, Smart TVs, Android TV, tvOS
- VOD (including downloads), Live, Linear, Catchup, and Trailers
Smarter Metadata for Smarter Protection
For the Parental Control feature to work effectively, your content metadata should include the following fields for each asset (e.g., Movie, Episode, Broadcast):
- System: The rating system being applied (e.g. US, Sweden)
- Rating: The specific age or classification level (e.g. PG-13, 18+)
- Reasons: Tags describing why the content received that rating, such as “violence,” “nudity,” or “substance abuse”
Operators can enable multiple rating systems and configure a fallback system for regions without a dedicated rating scheme. This ensures consistent content protection worldwide.
What the Viewer Sees
- Rating level displayed as icons or text on content cards and detail pages
- Rating reasons shown before playback (e.g. “Nudity,” “Violence”)
- PIN prompts are triggered at the appropriate moment based on user or platform-defined thresholds
- Transactional email sent to users for PIN delivery, reset, and verification
- Users can manage settings in their account (if the service allows), including adjusting rating thresholds or disabling parental control, with PIN confirmation required for changes
Put Viewers in Control and Keep Your Platform Compliant
Parental Control protects both your platform and your viewers. With greater flexibility for operators and more clarity for users, it helps you deliver a safer, smarter, and more personalised streaming experience.
Ready to activate Parental Control? You can enable it directly in your Magine Pro Console.
Want to learn more about Parental Control and the other powerful features in our OTT platform? Get in touch. And don’t miss future feature announcements—follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates.
