Google today announced the addition of a popular customer application to its Google TV software: Separate Profiles for Children. The child profiles will allow you to choose the applications available to young viewers. If a Google Account for the child already exists, you can add it as a child profile, but a Google Account does not. mandatory; you can also create a profile by simply adding a child’s name and age.
Like Google TV for adults, kids will see rows of recommended shows that are appropriate for their age to watch. You can also choose to share movies and TV shows that you have already purchased on the child profile with the Google Play Family Library. At least now, you won’t have to deal with children’s content infiltrating your own recommendations.
Parents can set daily viewing time limits for child profiles and enter a designated bedtime. “Your children will be greeted with three countdown warning signs before a final ‘Time is up’ screen appears and ends their viewing time,” wrote Saleh Altayyar, Google TV product manager, in a blog post. “You will always have the option of adding extra time when it’s not a school night.”
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Image: Google
Parents can prevent children from switching to normal profiles by setting a profile lock, which requires a PIN code to bypass it. You can also check out Google’s Family Link smartphone app to “see how much time your kids are spending in their favorite apps, block and unblock apps, monitor app activity, and more.”
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Image: Google
The background of children’s profiles can be customized with various themes, and Google says it will be adding profile avatars “in the coming weeks.” Keep in mind that although Google TV does add children’s profiles, it still doesn’t offer the option to create more than one. adult profile – so I hope it’s not far behind.
Child profiles will roll out to the Chromecast with Google TV and other Google TV devices in the US starting this month, with global expansion following “over the next few months.” The functionality was badly needed and helps solidify Google TV as a streaming interface to beat.