1.    Understand the TV Ratings System

It’s impossible to personally watch every television program before letting your kids watch it. The rating systems provided by each program can help you decide what kind of programming is appropriate. There are seven different ratings and five content labels that can be assigned to programs. This handy chart will help you understand what each of these represents.

Understanding Television Content Labels and Ratings
Label/Rating	Meaning
D	Suggestive dialogue
L	Crude language
S	Sexual situations
V	Violence
FV	Fantasy violence
TV-Y	Appropriate for all children
TV-Y7	Appropriate for children aged 7 years and above
TV-Y7-FV	Same as TV-Y7 but indicates intensive combat or violence
TV-G	Suitable for kids and adults
TV-PG	May contain material that is unsuitable for kids
TV-14	Material unsuitable for kids below 14 years of age
TV-MA	Strictly for adults aged 18 and above

 

2.      Teach Good TV Habits

Kids take cues from their home environment and form habits accordingly. If your kids have developed unhealthy TV habits, you need to create rules as well as alter the home environment a little. Do you have too many TVs in the house? Designate some rooms as screen-free. Don’t use the TV as background noise or treat it as the focal point of the furniture set up. The adults can also help set an example for kids by watching less TV.

3.      Create Access Profiles on Your TV

Now that you understand what kinds of shows are suitable for kids, go ahead and set up the parental controls on your television. Refer to the instructions from your cable provider and/or television manual. Most cable services will have detailed how-to guides online if you are a subscriber of Time Warner cable packages; follow these steps to activate parental locks on specific content categories:

• ·         Press the Settings button on the remote
  
• ·         Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Parental Controls category
  
• ·         Go to the Content Block option
  
• ·         Press Select
  
• ·         Navigate to the content you want to restrict and press Select again
  
• ·         A Lock icon will appear on the content category
  
• ·         Input your PIN and press the C button to save your settings.
  

4.      Find Child-Friendly and Educational Content

Another great idea is to encourage kids to watch more educational programming. You can use this handy tool created by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to find high-quality programs for children.