All programmes on pay tv are not suitable for children under 18, below 16 and so on, as such, they need parental control so that kids are not exposed to unpalatable violent scenes while watching their favourite programmes.
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Known as Parental Guidance, PG is a rating category, according to Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), that suggests age appropriateness for programmes on television, photo, and video content.
Popular PG rating categories include:
- Everyone
- Everyone 10+
- Teen
- Mature 17+
- 18+
- Rating Pending
What is Parental Control?
So, parental control is an attempt of parents to monitor, give rules, guide, protection, direction and counselling on the kinds of programmes and content their children are exposed to watch.
PayTv like Dstv and Gotv rates nearly all the programmes that are shown on their channels. One such programmes on Gotv and Dstv is the Multichoice yearly reality TV show dubbed “Big Brother Naija” where some scenes may not be suitable for children under 16.
Not interested in progamme like BBNaija?
If you would like to activate the parental control on your decoder like DStv and GOtv, customers of the PayTv who would like to opt out of viewing the BBNaija can do so by using the USSD code:
- DStv: Smart card number [leave a space] BBOUT to 30333
- GOtv: IUC Number [leave space] BBOUT to 4688
How to Set Up Parental Control on Decoder
Also, you can activate the parental control option on your DStv and GOtv decoders for viewers younger than 18 years old by following the step-by-step guide below:
- Press the Menu button on your DStv remote control.
- Select the Parental Control Option
- Enter 123 which is the default Pin Code
- Scroll using the right arrow and select User Defined
- Go to Parental Levels and then choose the appropriate Parental Guidance (PG) Rating.
- If you select PG13, it will block an event rated 16 and above.
- Finally, Press `OK’ to save the settings and press `Exit’ to go back to normal viewing.
Note: As you are planning to block some channels on your decoder by activating parental control, don’t also forget that it’s a digital age, and many children are exposed to social media and channels like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where they catch up with some of the interesting shows they might have missed because of their parents’ control on programmes at home.
As such, ensure to talk to them about why a particular programme is not suitable for them. Definitely, some smart kids would ask their parents where some channels are blocked on their decoder.
Protect and guide them right.