Parental Controls

AOL and Parental Controls

Continuing its long industry leadership in protecting children online, AOL now offers the leading parental controls software for free to all users. Learning how to explore and understand the online world is an essential skill for children in today’s wired world, but children need and deserve special protection online. Although no law, no technology, and no corporate initiative can ever take the place of involved, well-informed parents, AOL’s parental controls empower parents to protect their children from inappropriate content and help ensure that their online experience is safe and age-appropriate.

AOL provides three tiers of age-appropriate content for children under 18: KOL (12 and under), RED, or Young Teen (13–15), and RED Plus, or Mature Teen (16–17). Parents can further customize their child’s experience by using controls for multiple screen names, email, instant messaging, online time, chat and Web access. AOL® Guardian is a feature that enables parents to receive updates on their child’s online activities, and the Web Unlock feature allows parents to modify their parental controls remotely from any Internet-enabled computer, rather than just from in the home. In 2005, Kids Online (KOL) received the “Best of Web” award from WiredKids, the world’s largest online safety group.

AOL was the first Internet service provider to partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and launch online “Amber Alerts” to help find missing children by instantly sending an alert to AOL members and Internet users who have opted into the alerts via email, phone or Instant Message. AOL also works closely with law enforcement agencies to identify, track down and prosecute child predators.

Time Warner Cable and Parental Controls

Time Warner Cable is committed to giving parents choice and control over their family TV viewing. From the widest programming choices to the best education on how to make smart decisions about children’s use of media, Time Warner Cable provides parents and caregivers with a powerful range of tools to manage the content that comes into their homes. Each Time Warner Cable digital set-top box comes equipped with parental control features that enable adults to easily block entire channels or specific programs based on the time of day, channel and rating. These features can be programmed using the remote control; customer help is available by telephone or online. For the customer without a set-top box, Time Warner Cable will block or trap out entire channels upon request.

Time Warner Cable engages in public awareness outreach through PSAs, newspaper and guide ads, bill stuffers and on-hold messages to inform parents of these tools and how they can be used. Parental controls are also provided for subscribers to Road Runner, Time Warner Cable’s high-speed data service.

In 2005, Time Warner Cable announced the introduction of a Family Choice Tier. This package, which was rolled out in 2006, contains 12–15 television channels for families, giving parents another method to decide what programming comes into their homes.