[redfiat]

hi
i really like the xbmc however it would be great if
i could have a parental lock control .

in simplest form have a my adult section in home
which is password protected, and contains
the same functions in home.

in complex form each area could have in the xml
file an age rating. if this age rating is < a set value
such as 18 it asks for a password.

that way my kids can turn the xbox on, watch their
movies, play their games but not play my games or watch my movies.

i dont want my 5 year old playing games like halo yet or
watching van helsing, etc.

cheers

[Phocea]

i would be very interested by something like this also.
however in the meanwhile i have found a work around. i basically launch xbmc as my dashboard and use the xml in the c root to define the section the kids are allowed to see. so basically my games point to f:\kidsgames. i removed the application and other buttons not required for them, you can do the the same for the movies etc ..

when i want to go to the parent section i simply, launch xbmc again from f:\apps\xbmc where the xml in this folder is configured to show everything. not as nice as a built in parental control but it works.
i think what would be a nice way to implement it with what is already existing is to have xbmc ask which profile to log in to at startup. that way u can have the kiddie profile using their own skin and can even more customize it.

you may want to look at http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin....assword
look like someone is implementing this functionality

[matt11601]

i agree, a parental lock or any lock would be nice. it would be nice if you had the option of just adding a tag to a menu in the xml file to password protect a menu such as when selecting my videos a password is prompted. or, another nice feature would be to have a user login screen as soon as xbmx is launched much like a winxp login screen. this screen could work with the profiles feature already in xbmc so that a kids menu and an adults menu or even a per user menu could be implemented. not sure if anyone would like to see this but hopefully there are a few out there.

[BritneysPAIRS]

any kind of protection on a folder or folders or user would be great and looks like slacker is in great shape to impliment it hope it does come to light

[matt11601]

sounds good

[gsx1400]

hi. i'm new around here so don't know if it was posted before. have a kid with 5 years; don't want him to play some games i have in the disk (halo, doom, etc). is there some way to "block" them with password or something?

thanks in advance

carlos matos - portugal

[gsx1400]

hi. i'm new around here so don't know if it was posted before. have a kid with 5 years; don't want him to play some games i have in the disk (halo, doom, etc). is there some way to "block" them with password or something?

thanks in advance

carlos matos - portugal

[kraqh3d]

you can prevent access to games on the hard drive. the easiest way to do it is to split your games up into two folders -- one public, one private. then in xboxmediacenter.xml you define two bookmarks.

<bookmark>
<name>games</name>
<path>f:\games\public</path>
<depth>2</depth>
</bookmark>
<bookmark>
<name>locked games</name>
<path>f:\games\private</path>
<depth>2</depth>
<lockmode>1</lockmode>
<lockcode>12345</lockcode>
</bookmark>

you'll also need to set a mastermode and mastercode in the masterlock section too. this is required to enable share locking.

look here for more info:
http://manual.xboxmediacenter.de/wakka.p....2&v=j4z

[gsx1400]

thanks again.

carlos matos - portugal

[Gamester17]

Microsoft Announces New Tools to Help Parents Manage Kids' Interactive Media Use

"Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a new parental control feature, the Xbox 360 Family Timer. The Family Timer will enable parents for the first time to set the appropriate amount of gaming and entertainment time for their kids, on a daily or weekly basis.

"As a leader in interactive entertainment, it's Microsoft's responsibility to provide parents with tools they can use to manage their children's video gaming and online experiences, and we have made that a priority from the very start," said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

The Xbox 360 Family Timer is an addition to the console's existing set of industry-leading parental control features. Similar to its Windows Vista counterpart, the new Xbox 360 Family Timer can restrict children's activity time and can be set on a per-day or per-week basis. Helpful "notifications" will appear to warn the gamer that the session is nearing the end and the feature will automatically turn off the console when a pre-determined time limit has been exceeded. The Family Timer feature will be available for download via Xbox LIVE in early December.

Xbox was the first video game and entertainment system with built-in parental controls for both online and offline use. Known as Family Settings, these controls allow parents and caregivers to set guidelines for which games work for them, make informed choices about content, and decide who their children can play with online. Earlier this year, Windows Vista launched with a set of similar parental controls that allows parents to guide children's game playing, web browsing, and overall computer use. These controls help parents determine which games their children can play, which programs they can use, which websites they can visit--and when.

According to Bach, with more than 13 million Xbox 360® consoles sold worldwide, the company's drive to empower parents is a core Microsoft responsibility. "We've seen a tremendous response to the robust parental controls offered on Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, and the Xbox 360 Family Timer will continue to deliver on our promise to provide safer, balanced and fun entertainment for everyone," said Bach. "Professionally, I am proud of my division's work in this area, and personally, as a parent of three school-age children, I know how important it is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with my family in order to uphold our household screen time rules."

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=628635

[azido]

that is exactly what i wanted to request some minutes ago.

i see there is no difference made between movies and adult movies (porn), so if you have listed any porn it just appears in the "normal" movie list.

my request would be to create another section beside "movies" and "tv-shows" named "adult" or something like that - either with an option to exclude it from a certain profile or with a password prompt when trying to enter that section in database mode. the second would be fantastic!

edit: okay. i've played around a bit with that given profiles in xbmc.

this might be a good solution since as i have different sources for adult content than for "normal" movies, i can seperate them simply by not adding the adult paths to the family profile. in combination with password protecting the settings they cannot be added by my family.

[gabbott]

There is the ability to password protect sources in XBMC, I've used this feature for a long time. Or another option use different profiles that can be password protected.

[azido]

There is the ability to password protect sources in XBMC, I've used this feature for a long time. Or another option use different profiles that can be password protected.

thing is: even if you create two profiles with each one having it's own sources, you might come to a situation where you need the same source for both of them. a good example would be a dvd-drive for media that is on dvd and not on harddisk.

with the given features you are unable to hide specific content for the restricted profile when sharing the same database. the only workaround would be to have 2 independent databases - which means either populating the databases twice for each new record or copying over the database and manually remove unwanted entries.

me (and others too, i think) would like to lock individual titles by setting a flag or something on it - similar to the "already watched" flag that exists.

[gibson3659]

I am a recent convert from MythTV, and they almost have parental control right.

"MythVideo supports the ability to limit what videos maybe viewed without a password/pin. There are 4 different levels that a video/file can be set at. From within the configuration you can select a default level. Any videos/files at or below that level will show up in the list. Use Video Manger to change the level of any particular video (must be done on a video-by-video case).

MythVideo will only stay at that level until you try to change the level (by hitting keys 1-4 in the Browse or List screens). "

They had 4 levels with 3 independent pins for the levels 2-4. The appropriate level could be applied when a video was imported, and was configured by adjusting the ratings to the levels. If level 4 was unlocked, all levels were unlocked. The same could apply for game and tv ratings, with manual overrides. XBMC also needs an inactivity time to reset to the default access level. This is much more convenient than (un)locking individual sources. It would be perfect if the number of levels were user definable with multiple top and subordinate levels.

[bitplane]

I'd also like to see parental lock in XBMC.
I imagine it working by extracting information from the MPAA rating field and adding it to the media library as a tag, then acting as a forced filter when parental lock is activated.

Feature request added: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/5828