How to use parental control for TV and broadband

Keeping your family safe online or in front of the TV shouldn’t feel like a full-time job. After all, kids have a knack for stumbling across things you’d rather they didn’t.

That's where Virgin Media's security and parental controls come in. Fully customisable and easy to set up, change or even switch off (when the time is right), they’re TV and online tools made for families that need them.

Here’s everything you need to know about our security and parental controls, along with some helpful links to learn more.

Essential Security gives you parental controls for every device connected to your home broadband, making it easy to manage the type of content your family can access, at no extra cost. Essential Security is turned on as standard when you join us.

You can customise your settings anytime through My Virgin Media online or in the My Virgin Media app by selecting Categories, Sites or Timer within your Account Settings.

Here's what each option does:

1. Categories: Block or allow groups of websites, including gambling, weapons, alcohol and tobacco, social media and more. When parental controls are enabled, websites relating to pornography, child abuse, violence, crime, hate, drugs, hacking, suicide and self-harm, and address-hiding services are blocked automatically.

2. Sites: Allows you to create exceptions by allowing trusted websites or blocking individual sites that you don't want accessed.

3. Timer: Lets you choose when parental controls are active. Simply schedule the dates and times you'd like restrictions to be temporarily switched off before automatically turning back on again.

After changing your settings, you may need to restart your device before any new website restrictions take effect. You can find out more about Essential Security in our FAQs.

Just head to your My Virgin Media account either online or through the app to customise what to block and when. If you want, you can also turn off parental controls here.

Browsing TV channels or streaming apps after the watershed can sometimes lead to content that's not suitable for younger viewers. Virgin TV's built-in parental controls make it easy to decide what your family can watch.

Available on our Virgin TV 360 and Stream boxes, parental controls are protected by a four-digit PIN (set to 1234 when your box is first installed, so it's a good idea to change it straight away).

Your PIN can be used to restrict access to:

• Programmes rated 12, before 8pm

• Programmes rated 15, before 9pm

• Programmes rated 18, before 10pm

• Channels and apps you've chosen to lock

• Adult channels

• Recordings made after the watershed when watched before 9pm

You can update or reset your PIN by heading to Settings and selecting Parental Controls, where you'll also find options to lock channels and apps or manage purchase controls.

Many streaming apps available on Virgin TV, including BBC iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube, also offer their own parental controls, PIN protection or Restricted Modes. These can usually be managed directly within each app or by signing into your account on another device.

For households that want extra peace of mind, Advanced Security by Virgin Media builds on the protection offered by Essential Security with additional features designed to help defend your connected home from increasingly sophisticated online threats.

Advanced Security helps protect compatible devices connected to your Virgin Media broadband from cyber-attacks, suspicious activity and emerging online risks, while giving you greater visibility over what's happening across your home network. It's designed to work seamlessly in the background, so you can spend less time worrying about online security and more time enjoying everything the internet has to offer.

Advanced Security also gives you 24/7 security even when devices are connected to networks that aren’t your home WiFi, and will stop your devices from being remotely accessed or controlled. In fact, all your devices with F-Secure installed are protected, no matter where they are.

Interested in getting Advanced Security for your household? Advanced Security protects an unlimited number of devices for just £3.50 per month (first three months free, with no bank or credit card details required for the trial) or £35 a year.