PSA- good choice for TV screen for nintendo, with kids

amother

Tue, Jun 06 2023, 3:07 pm

Im posting this as a PSA because I could have used some advice like this a few months ago, and in case this helps anyone, here goes.

We were looking for a large screen that my kids could hook up their nintendo switch to, to play games against each other etc.
But we were very concerned because all the latest TV screens (that have the excellent quality we were looking for etc) are all smart TVs that come loaded with internet TV apps, youtube etc. Many of them do offer parental controls, but I had a hard time sifting through which, if any, really took away all internet from the kids, and which just limited some things (as I found most did, and poorly).
In the end this is what we did and BH its working great;
We bought an Amazon Fire TV (4 series) through amazon. It basically behaves like a humongous tablet, hooked up instantly to our home wifi and our amazon account.
Now, if you leave it like this, your kids can access your amazon prime account and watch Prime movies/TV, and YouTube etc.

Go to parental controls, under settings and preferences, and enable them. What this does is it sets up a PIN# that needs to be entered any time an app is selected. This applies to youtube, and basically every single option on the TV, aside for Prime itself. If they want to open anything at all, besides Prime, they need the PIN#.

Then, to tackle the Prime issue- under parental controls, select the option to specify which audience level movie/TV they can watch through prime. Being a cautious parent who wants to oversee everything, I locked everything, including rated G little kid shows.
Now, with those 2 options addressed, any time they wsnt to click any app or watch anything at all through amazon prime, they need a pin #. The only thing they can do on their own without me entering the PIN# on the screen is play their nintendo switch games.

(But be aware that they can see and skim through all the titles for movies/tv on Prime. Thats not a problem for me but if that bothers you then this isnt your solution...)

amother

Wed, Jun 07 2023, 4:44 am

amother DarkCyan wrote:

So your kids are just one PIN away from full internet access?

Not exactly. They are one pin away from having open access to youtube and amazon prime, movies and tv shows. No browser.

Similar to how other kids may be one filter password away from completely open internet on any internet device....

I get what youre saying here but they cant figure out my pin, its a very large screen in the main area of the house, and honestly, they arent being raised in a restricted way where they are chalishing for more movies and tv. We have other filtered devices, we watch family movies together, they are allowed to watch certain appropriate movies and shows, they have supervised email addresses and screen time. We speak often about what is appropriate to watch (and read!), protecting our neshama, and why even ima and abba dont watch and read certain things.
None of them have ever shown the slightest interest in watching "more" than what they're allowed, their cups are quite full.

Anyway my point was for people who were looking for something like this, to help them out a little. I know ive read threads here before from women asking about screens for nintendos.

I'll add that if you want an extra safeguard, you can hide the remote-the screen wont work without it. (But again, if you think your kids are the type to take drastic measures to watch movies, they can probably just purchase another remote if they know what your pin is)