IPTV Parental Controls: How to Set a PIN and Hide Channels

An IPTV subscription can include thousands of channels and a large on-demand library, not all of it suitable for children. Unlike a Sky box, there's no single parental setting that covers everything — controls come from your player app, your device and your home network. Used together, they give you solid protection in about 15 minutes.

What Parental Controls Can Do on IPTV

IPTV parental controls let you hide or PIN-lock channel groups and on-demand categories in your player app, stop children installing or opening apps on the device, and block unsuitable websites at router level. Controls live in the player and device rather than the IPTV service, so set them on each TV and device children use.

Setting a PIN in Your IPTV Player

• Open your player's settings and look for 'Parental control', 'Parental lock' or 'Adult content' — many players, including TiviMate and IPTV Smarters, have one
• Set a PIN, then choose the channel groups or categories to lock
• On Formuler boxes, MYTVOnline has its own lock options
• Menu names differ between apps and versions, so check the app's help if you can't find the option

Choose a PIN that isn't used anywhere else in the house, such as your phone or bank card PIN, and set it on every device that has the player. See our TiviMate setup guide for where the settings are.

Hiding Channel Groups and Categories

Most players let you hide whole channel groups so they don't appear in the channel list or guide at all. This is useful for adult categories and anything else you don't want visible. Locked groups still appear but need a PIN; hidden groups don't appear. Some providers can also remove adult categories from your account on request — ask support if you'd prefer that.

Device Controls: Firestick, Android TV and Smart TVs

• Firestick and Fire TV: Settings > Preferences > Parental Controls. Turning it on requires a PIN to open apps and make purchases
• Google TV: add a kids profile, which lets you choose which apps children can open
• Samsung smart TVs: Smart Hub lets you lock individual apps with a PIN
• LG smart TVs: the Safety or Lock settings can lock apps and set programme ratings
• Phones and tablets: use Screen Time on iPhone and iPad, or Google Family Link on Android

Router and Network Controls

Major UK broadband providers offer free network-level filters — for example BT Parental Controls, Sky Broadband Shield, Virgin Media Web Safe and TalkTalk HomeSafe — that block categories of websites across every device on your home network. They filter websites rather than IPTV channels, so use them alongside player and device controls rather than instead of them. The UK Safer Internet Centre has impartial guidance on setting them up.

A Simple Setup for Families

• Hide adult groups in the player on every device
• PIN-lock any remaining groups you want to supervise, such as films with higher age ratings
• Turn on device parental controls so children can't install other apps
• Enable your broadband provider's filter
• Check the settings again after app updates, which occasionally reset preferences