Although I have thoroughly enjoyed the Apple TV over the past few days, I raise an eyebrow when I think about Apple’s reasoning for dismissing the idea of Parental Controls for streaming video content. Due to the number of iTunes enabled computers on my home network, and the paltry hardrive included with the Apple TV, streaming content was the ideal route as opposed to actual syncing [with a single computer].
Photoshopped mock-up of Parental Controls for Streaming Content – iTunes
The iTunes Preferences menu offers a Parental section which provides content filtering for purchasing content from the iTunes Music Store, why not provide a similar filter for streaming content?
Of course, anyone with content that should not be viewed by anyone else on the network could simply disable Sharing or specify distinct Playlists, but the fail-safe should still be included server side (iTunes) rather than hardware (Apple TV).
Adding such options under the Apple TV specific menu would feel redundant (I’m sure). iTunes Preferences should be streamlined in that all Parental Controls options – Sharing, Apple TV, and iTunes Music Store – should be under the Parental menu option.
I agree with the fact everything should be universal. Don’t just set it for the iTunes Store, it should universally take effect on all aspects of iTunes, which includes streaming.