Tag: lovefilm

How to set Parental Controls on LoveFilm App

I really should pay more attention.  I put far too much trust in Film/TV Producers and recently Lovefilm, to know what is appropriate for my daughter to watch.  I’m guilty of putting the TV on and if it’s on Cbeebies, Boomerang or Nickelodeon I don’t even give it a second thought, trusting that what she is watching is appropriate.

So what’s the problem?

I have a subscription to Lovefilm, so our 5 year old can watch movies on demand.  She tends to watch movies in the morning with breakfast.   Armed with a bowl of cereal she grabs the iPad, loads up Lovefilm and navigates to the ‘Children’s ‘ films.   She’s watched the likes of Mary Poppins, Enchanted and Scooby Doo plus a few others.  All pretty harmless in my view.

Eeek!

However, this morning, do bear in mind she also tends to wear earphones so I couldn’t hear what she was watching, I was walking past and glanced at the screen and the word ‘rape’ jumped out at me in the subtitles.  I quickly grabbed it off her to find out what she was watching.  It was a movie called ‘Mulan’ which is rated 15, previously I hadn’t realised that within the ‘Children’s’ collection there are also movies that are rated 12, 15 and 18; which makes perfect sense as 12-18 are kids but what’s appropriate for them is worlds apart from what appropriate for a 5 year old.

Phew!

I’ve now found the parental settings and have turned them on.  However, according to some the Parental controls on Lovefilm and Netflix aren’t what they should be.   She can now only watch movies rated U freely but if she tries to watch something PG (e.g Matilda, Karate Kid, Parent Trap) or higher she will have to ask me to enter a password.  Phew!  One less thing to worry about.

To set the parental controls:

  1. Go to Lovefilm.com and sign into your account
  2. Access ‘your account’ which is in the top right.
  3. In the My details section you will see Preferences on the right.
  4. Scroll down to parental controls
  5. You will be prompted for your Lovefilm password
  6. On the next page you will need to choose a pin and the level of control you want.

Setting Parental Control

Is there anything else I should be watching out for?

 

I’ve cancelled my free subscription to Netflix

I’ve been waiting for ages for Netflix to come to the UK.  My family uses it in Canada and its brilliant being able to stream videos with the touch of a button.  So, when I heard an ad on the radio for it, I raced home and signed up even though having to register using my Facebook details annoyed me.

I was really thinking this was when my AppleTv as going to come into its own.  For those of you who aren’t aware what it is it’s a small wireless device that allows me to stream content (music, videos, etc) from my PC to our TV, I love it, but getting content can be a bit of a struggle unless you’re willing to fork out £9.99 to buy films from iTunes.

The Netflix service is excellent in itself;  it was easy to set up and when you compare the price of renting a single film from iTunes (£3.49) a subscription for £6 a month for unlimited films seemed like a bargain.

B-List Movies

But sadly, the content is very poor; I didn’t recognize many of the movies/TV programme nor was I inclined to watch many of them.

So, in the end I didn’t feel it was worth the monthly charge and cancelled it before I started accruing charges.

Fingers crossed the content improves and if it does I will be one of the first to sign up again.

Is Lovefilm any better?

In the meantime, Lovefilm is trying to compete and has launched their own streaming service, so I thought I’d try it out.  It’s £4.99 a month and the content is much improved.  However, I’m not able to stream to my TV.

I didn’t realise before I signed up that I wouldn’t be able to do this via my AppleTv.  I’d cracked how to use Airplay to watch content via my iPad, but sadly the Lovefilm App prohibits you from doing this with Lovefilm films.  The sound comes through but no movie.  I would love to know why.

Come on guys sort it out!

I find the whole situation frustrating, I can see that the technology is available to offer a service that I want and am willing to pay for, but we have two companies that are offering services that are substandard.

I’d love your thoughts on this.