If your family loves movies, games, and other forms of media, then chances are you are a huge fan of Kodi, one of the most popular open source software media players. With Kodi, you can import your own media, save media from other third-party sources, or download add-ons that let you stream specific content on nearly any device in your household. However, you may not feel like everything you download to your Kodi player is suitable for your children. This guide walks you through the process of setting up parental controls or other security measures in Kodi.
How to Set Parental Controls in Kodi
One of the benefits of an open source software like Kodi is the flexibility with the program’s settings. Kodi’s parental controls are one of these features. Although the Kodi parental controls menu is a bit difficult to find, you can do several things once you set it up.
Turning on a Master Lock
If you want to keep your children away from unsuitable media anywhere within Kodi, you can set up a master lock, which requires users to enter a password or PIN. You can set it to open the app or perform specific tasks by following these steps:
Open the Kodi app.Click on Settings (the gears at the top-left of the screen).
Once the System menu opens, select “Interface Settings.”
Scroll to the bottom and click the gear until it says “Expert.”
Scroll back up and click on “Master lock,” then click “Master lock code and settings.”
When the “Lock preferences” menu opens, click “Master lock” to enable the feature.
From here, you can choose whether you want a numeric password, gamepad button combo, or full-text password.
Enter and re-enter the chosen password.
Once you set the “Master lock”, you can scroll down the menu and toggle on or off whichever features you’d like to password lock.
Turning on Parental Controls for PVR and Live TV
In addition to locking your children out of specific Kodi functions, you can also restrict which channels they can access within the Live TV feature. To do this, carry out the following steps:
Open Settings.Click “PVR and Live TV Settings.”
Select “Parental controls” and toggle the Enabled setting to on.
Create a PIN when prompted.
Once you choose a PIN, you can change how long a locked channel can be open before it requires users to re-enter the PIN.Now that parental controls are enabled, you can go to “General -> Channel Manager” to choose which channels will be restricted.
Making a Child’s Profile
Parental controls are great, but you may need to restrict your child’s access even more. If so, you can set up a completely different profile by following these steps:
Navigate to “Settings -> Profile Settings.”Under General, select “Show login screen on startup” and toggle it on.
Once that’s enabled, you can move down on the same screen to Profiles and click “Add Profile.”
Enter a name for the new account (like “kids”).
When you set up the profile, Kodi will ask you to choose a profile folder for this new profile, but it’s okay to just click “OK” to accept the predefined one.
To edit the profile you just created, in the “Edit profile” dialogue, double-check that both “Media info” and “Media sources” are set as “Separate.” This will help you ensure that your children don’t have access to any adult content you have saved for your main profile.
You can leave any other settings in this section as they are unless you want to add a picture or additional security within the lock preferences.
Adding Content to a Child’s Profile
Once you have created a profile for your children, you can select which media you want them to have access to.
Open Kodi and choose the new profile.Move to the movies section and click on “Add videos.”In the “Add video source” dialogue, click on “Browse,” then select the folder with all the child-friendly movies.
Once you select the folder with your media in it, Kodi will ask you to label the type of media. Click on “This directory contains” and change it to “Movies.”
Kodi automatically fills in the rest for you once you select the media type. However, you can also make adjustments if needed. Once you’re finished, hit “OK.”
Once you return to the main interface, your new content will appear.
If you added separate folders for episodic content, repeat the procedure for them but change the content type to “TV shows.”
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can my kids download content on Kodi if I’ve enabled parental controls?
If you’ve set up a master lock, then only users who know the password can add additional content or download add-ons to your Kodi system.
2. How can I separate movies and television shows so that my kids don’t have access to all of my Kodi content?
When you save your downloaded content for your Kodi player, you’ll need to maintain separate folders for different content. Doing this will allow you to follow the steps mentioned above regarding separate profiles and adding content to each.
3. Can my child bypass the Kodi master lock?
Unfortunately, if your child is tech-savvy enough to understand basic coding, there is a way to bypass the master lock. You will need to decide whether you’re child is tech-savvy enough to figure that out on their own.
Megan Glosson is a freelance technology writer based in Nashville, TN. She has extensive experience working with everything from printers to smart home systems, and serves as the go-to “tech guru” for a small business that sells digital products. Megan has created thousands of articles for online publications and company blogs, including How-To Geek, Clean Email, and Review Geek.
When she’s not writing, you will probably find Megan playing board games with her partner and two children or swimming in the pool. You can check out Megan’s entire portfolio on her website, https://www.meganglosson.com/.
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