My point is that by putting together a list of “acceptable” kids’ shows, they’re giving lazy parents an easy out — they don’t have to think about it at all. There could be shows not on the list that their kids would really enjoy and get value from; there could be shows on the list that aren’t really appropriate for that particular kid. The way it’s set up encourages parents to avoid taking responsibility for really knowing and understanding the options, and deciding for themselves what their kids should watch.

I love the idea.

I thought this enabled a parent (or family member) to set up a separate menu so that shows that one person or another wanted to see would be easier to find. I record a lot of stuff and my shows are the majority of what’s recorded. Another family member might not want to sift through all my shows to find their one show.

As for kids…my kids are older now, so this doesn’t really even matter to me, but when they were younger, I might have liked to have been able to set up a separate menu of shows for them, possibly, but only if I could choose the shows (or if they could). This would have made their shows easier for them to find.

Deanne

My son is 19 and away at college, so this doesn’t affect me personally now. I’m not sure if we would have wanted this feature when he was younger. Maybe. Hm. He really didn’t show a lot of interest in inappropriate TV, so we didn’t have to deal with that issue.

OTOH, my 11-year-old nephew recently tried to sneak an episode of Family Guy onto his mom’s TiVo for later watching. Now, I think FG is pretty hilarious, but some eps are WAY unsuitable for 11-year-olds and this was definitely one of them. It was the one where Peter has to go for sensitivity training… begins with him watching a sleazy lesbian-prison movie and gets sleazier from there. My sister-in-law is a good mom, but she had never heard of this show; my husband and I had to clue her in. We watched it with her when her son wasn’t around and she was horrified.

There’s SO MUCH on cable nowadays that I can understand where parents of younger kids might welcome some pre-screening; there just isn’t time to check everything out anymore.

I said I wouldn’t use it because my children are 14+ and 17.5, so I’m not trying to keep them watching Barney or after school specials. The biggest child related Tivo problem i have is that my daughter is a TV junkie and will watch *live* TV if she can. *shudder* She’s a little better about it now, because she’s got a new computer with a vast hard drive and Tivo Desktop, so she pulls shows she wants off the Tivos in the house and watches them in her room. I’ve made it clear that if I wouldn’t let her watch it with me (it’s an R rated movie or something), then she isn’t allowed to TTG it and watch it herself.

What I *really* wish I could do is mark some Tivo recordings “Private” so that they couldn’t be seen on the Now Showing for MRV or TTG, in other rooms. As it stands now, my children can see the list of everything we have recorded, which is awkward when I want to record something like the recent Suicide Girls doc, or similar risque content.

Definite use of the virtual partition there.

I love the idea.

I am personally uncomfortable with the idea of letting “a panel of experts” decide what my kid should watch. Recommendations are fine, but from the wording of this press release, it makes it sound like the KidCentral area will be more along the lines of telling me which shows are and aren’t acceptable for my kid. I think this makes it too easy for parents to abdicate responsibility and not actually look into what their kids are watching. I’d prefer to do the research myself, educate myself on each particular show and then decide whether my kid should watch it.

I also personally don’t feel a need to have the stuff I record for myself isolated and password-protected from my kids. Granted right now my kid is too little to operate the TiVo so it’s moot; but even once he gets older and can do it himself, I can’t foresee wanting to set up the TiVo to protect him from my content. Again, it’s a parental responsibility issue. If there’s stuff that I’m recording that I think might be objectionable, or that I don’t think I want my kid watching, I should be talking openly with him about it, explaining the issues — maybe even watching it with him so I can talk about it. Simply locking it so that he can’t get to it is avoiding the point IMO.

Yet, at the same time, I don’t believe in pushing my beliefs onto others. So if other parents would rather let a bunch of experts suggest shows for them, and would rather have their TiVos restrict access so the kids can’t see the adult stuff, it’s not my business to say that they can’t do that.

So, the bottom line is that neither “I think this is a good addition” nor “I do not think this is a good addition” really quite summarizes my opinion.