Most of you probably know that setting parental controls for the Internet limits your children and grandchildren to certain Web sites. But I'm willing to bet that you've never heard of setting parental controls for DVDs that are watched using Windows Media Player, am I right? Well, it's true! You can activate Windows Media Player’s parental control feature to restrict your children from viewing any DVD movies with a rating at or below the one you specify. If you're interested in that, keep reading for all the details!
If you have DVD decoder software installed on your computer (it usually comes with it), Windows Media Player can play movies using your DVD ROM drive. Yes, it's a great enhancement to Windows XP’s multimedia capabilities, but one downside is that not all DVDs are suitable for young children. If you have kids who use your computer and you have DVDs you don't want them to watch, you should definitely enable the Windows Media Player parental controls. That will allow you to set a rating for your children, ranging from G to PG-13. Any movie higher than the rating you specify cannot be viewed unless the user knows the correct password. Note: For the feature to work for you when assigning multiple user accounts with parental controls, you will need an Administrator account. So, with all that out of the way, let’s get started!
1.) First, go to Start, All Programs and then click on Windows Media Player.
2.) In the top right hand corner, click on the Access Application Menus button.
3.) Scroll down and click on Tools. A second box should then come up on the left of the first box. Click Options.
Now, the Options dialogue box will appear.
4.) From there, click on the DVD tab.
5.) Checkmark the Parental Control box.
6.) Next, click on the drop down bar and select the rating you prefer.
7.) Go ahead and click OK when you're finished. Once you do that, Windows Media Player will remind you to set up your user accounts. That can be done by setting up an account and a password. Then from there, you can set up limited accounts for your children or grandchildren.
8.) Lastly, finish it up by clicking OK in the Windows Media Player reminder box.
There you have it. You can now control what your precious little ones watch!
~ Mike Pettinato
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