How To Set Parental Controls for Disney Plus

Mom and daughter sitting on couch using laptop

Disney+ (sometimes written as Disney Plus) is the new streaming video service from Disney. If you are a fan of Disney movies and TV Shows, Pixar Movies, Disney Channel Originals, and National Geographic content, this service might be for you. If you have a house with little ones and want a service where your kids can always find high quality and age appropriate content Disney+ is right up your alley.

For families concerned about inappropriate content there is great news! Disney+ offers no M-rated or R-rated content. There is nothing geared exclusively towards adults. That’s a huge contrast when comparing the service against its competitors like NetFlix or Hulu, where kids can find some movies and TV shows that could be considered very unsafe or inappropriate for kids. Nevertheless, there are some intense PG and PG13 content still shows on the service about, but parents who are concerned about this have options.

Disney+ includes some options for Parental Controls. Before describing these options, it is important to understand that this service is managed by Disney, and that since the content is curated and approved directly by Disney, the need for complex parental controls with Content Filtering or Website Blocking may be less relevant than for other services.

Detailed Instructions

Disney+ does not currently reference the features as Parental Controls, but parents can protect smaller kids from content that might not be age appropriate. It’s really pretty simple. After signing up for the service, parents should open the mobile App or login to the Disney+ web portal and simply select the profile icon.

(See icon in bottom right corner)

Then parents create a new profile for their child, while selecting an Avatar and entering Name. At the bottom of this screen parents designate that this profile will be protected and only have access to content that is rated G, TV-Y, TV-Y7/Y7-FV, or TV-G. This is done by selecting the toggle to turn on “Kids Profile”.

After creating the new child profile, parents just select this profile by tapping the Avatar associated with the profile. At this point, they are automatically logged in with that profile and are protected. The new limited profile is instantly applied, limiting the videos and shows that are available to the child. The limits are based on the ratings that Disney has defined in their rating system.

There are some things missing with this Disney Plus Parental Control implementation, but it is still workable for most families. The first thing you will notice is that kids can still easily log out of their profile and log into the parent’s profile. This might be less important for younger children who will likely stick with their applied settings because they just auto-login and the service just works.

Secondly, parents cannot change or define what is appropriate for their child; the setting for “Kids Profile” is either on or off. This is really limited but is a great start on Parental Controls. Before you become too critical, don’t forget that ambitious kids that log out of their profile and then log in to the Parent profile will still not have access to Adult Only content because Disney doesn’t offer that on this service.

There is an additional oversight on the Parental Controls feature that will definitely be concerning to parents. Disney+ lacks any time controls or schedules. Children could take their tablet to their bedroom and binge watch Disney Channel movies and TV series all night long. Luckily there is a solution for this. Net Nanny, the world leader in Parental Controls, has App Management for the Disney+ App. This means parents can create schedules and limit when kids can and cannot watch movies or shows on their Disney+ App. Net Nanny also includes in instant Pause feature, so parents can get kids off the Disney+ service when it’s time for homework, dinner or when kid’s have just had too much Kim Possible for the day.

In addition to App Management, Net Nanny applies settings across all devices and everywhere kids go, so kids can’t simply change to a new phone or tablet or connect to a different WiFi or LTE network to get around limits parents create.

The Disney+ streaming is a great service and provides quality media for families. The Disney Plus Parental Controls features pair perfectly with Net Nanny where more robust Parental Control features such as Screen Time Management, Pornography Blocking, Apps Management and Time Allocation all work with the Disney+ services to help keep your family protected and happy while watching great content.

Read the full article at www.netnanny.com



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