With the Amazon Fire TV Stick connected to the television, every member of the household has access to a vast array of content of all kinds, and even a few other options. Therefore, if you want to avoid potential problems due to inappropriate use, it might be a good idea to activate parental controls. These will give you more control over what can be seen, heard, and even done.
Why use parental controls
Parental controls on a device or service are simply a set of tools and options that allow parents or guardians to monitor and/or limit technology use by other users. These are especially designed for children.
Thanks to them, it is not simply a question of denying them access to certain content, but rather of protecting them and preventing them from unintentionally carrying out actions that could end up being a problem. For example, activation of paid services, in-app purchases or the like.
In addition, of course, they also offer the possibility of preventing them from touching aspects of the configuration or deleting applications without realizing it, among other things. Hence, if there are children at home, they are interesting to activate.
How to activate parental controls on a Fire TV
Now that you know what the use of parental controls is and you can imagine for what purpose it is done on Fire TVs, let's see what the activation process is. And then some additional details. To activate the controls on the Amazon Fire TV do the following:
- Turn on your TV and go to the Settings from your Fire TV
- Open the Preferences
- Select the Parental controls and press to activate them
- You will then be asked to enter a PIN code, this will be the one that will have to be used every time you want to make a change or access a service, etc.
- Hit next and that's it, you'll have the controls active
As you can see, activating the use of these control and protection tools for the little ones and the rest of the members of the family unit is very simple. Still, there are some additional details that you should know. The first are related to Amazon's own controls.
Once you have active parental controls on your Fire TV Stick you can make some extra settings that affect certain applications or services:
- You can activate whether or not to require the PIN to carry out shopping on amazon. This is recommended to do if there are children at home
- Prime Access Photos, if you use Amazon's photo storage service, you can make it necessary to enter the PIN to be able to see all the saved content
- age restriction. This option allows you to limit the content that will be viewed based on the age rating. In this way, nothing that could be for adults will be able to see the little ones if they do not enter the PIN
- Block on Amazon MusicIn addition to all of the above, you can also set a filter for Amazon Music. This prevents songs with explicit lyrics from playing. To perform this action, go to the Music app > Settings > Explicit filter and turn it on or off there.
These Amazon Fire TV parental controls are logically complemented by the filters and controls that other services already include. For example, Netflix, which also allows you to create a PIN and establish restrictions based on the type of profile and the age of those who use it.
However, although they are always helpful, it is best that all family members or people who live with us know how to act, what can be done, seen or heard. That way it will be easier for everyone. But if not, here are the tools you need to avoid problems.