To think Netflix parental controls aren't fit for purpose?

[spookybazuki]

My 13 year old DS will be having a couple of friends over for Halloween this evening, and I will be out as I'm taking my younger DS to a party.

The 13 year olds want to watch a Halloween/Horror movie. My son's Netflix account is set to "For teens and below" which is meant to restrict him to nothing more than a 12 rating. However, I've attached an image of the suggested list to this post and it's not what I expected at all! Many of these shows seem to be rated "G" which seems to mean "decide for yourself", but even if you do decide they're not suitable there is no way to filter them out of the list!

We do have a PIN set up as an extra measure so that he can't watch anything over a 12, but that doesn't stop these shows from being suggested, even though some of them clearly have adult content. I don't know whether it will stop them actually watching the "G" shows, but even if it does they're going to find it pretty frustrating searching by trial and error for a film that isn't blocked.

Am I missing something or is it just a really badly designed system?

No it's rubbish. Plus even if it weren't there's no way (that I know) to prevent a child just using someone else's account anyway - so they've access to everything regardless.

Yes Tizzy, that's true too, but DS knows he would be in big trouble if he switched to our 18+ account (and at least I can check afterwards to see what they have been watching).

It's rubbish. I've had this problem the last few years with my step son.
If you have the time how I tried to get around it was to find a selection of options you approve of and that work and save them to the watchlist. Then before you leaving tell them you made a list of ones that work to choose from. Even if they want to try something else instead they will soon get bored checking through them and revert to your list.

After a bit of fiddling around I've found away to remove suggestions from the list. You have to mark it with a "thumbs down". Then next time you log in it won't be suggested.

You have to do it for every individual show though. Now DS's list is a lot shorter!

That will tide us over for tonight. Then as soon as DH and I have finished watching Stranger Things 2 I'm planning to ditch Netflix unless I hear a good reason why not.

Aren't parental controls already set in the children's profiles? I don't have a fucking clue.

You could just, I don't know, supervise your children and trust them?

So I've just had a look. How do I set parental controls?

Stranger things is 12 rating and can be pretty scary.
Different ratings different countries
id buy them Zombieland good kids 'horror' film.

It's not really parental controls - more a sort of rough filter. Nothing to stop the child leaving their own account and using the parents' instead.

Supervise your child.

Countdukula you can only do it online, not on the tv. Log in to Netflix and go to "Account". The parental controls is under Settings.

OK, I think I've got it. I've got a 10 and 6 year old, so I've set it to PG. Presumably I can still watch my shows though?

Countduck, yes but you'll be asked for the PIN.

Yay, thanks. I'm so thick.

Countduck, you're not, it's just a really really badly designed system. The vast majority of families won't be using any controls at all, but a lot of them will think it's fine because they've classified their kids accounts as "child" or "teen". But Netflix just seems to use that for marketing, not control.

I've noticed that I can't classify individual profiles, which will be a PITA when I deem DD old enough to watch 12's.

Yes, it's annoying. I've had that problem too. Until today I had the PIN set for anything over a PG, which meant giving my 13 year old the PIN and trusting him not to use it for anything over a 12. Normally that's ok, but as I'm about to go out and leave him with friends to watch a Halloween movie there may be added peer pressure so I've changed it. For tonight, 12s will be fully accessible and only 15+ needs the PIN, which DS won't have.

I'll need to change it back tomorrow. Complicated!