Sky Q’s new Parents’ Guide helps you weed out the, ahem, ‘sexy stuff’ by providing detailed ratings of over 3500 films, the company announced today.
The feature has been created in collaboration with non-profit organisation Common Sense Media to help families make informed decisions about the media their kids consume.
Parents’ Guide presents a handful of categories with varied star ratings from zero to five for all three and a half thousand films across Sky Cinema, Sky Store and the company’s partner channels. Categories include: Violence & Scariness, Positive Messages, Consumerism, ‘Sexy Stuff’, Positive Role Models & Representation, Language, Drinking, Drugs & Smoking and Educational Value.
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Common Sense Media’s researchers review each and every Sky movie using their child development expertise and film knowledge to form detailed and informative category ratings. The organisation considers each film with its age classification in mind.
If the movie is a 12, Common Sense will assess it from the perspective of a pre-teen, explains Sky. If the film gets five stars for Violence & Scariness on the Parents’ Guide then it could seriously spook a 12 year old, but typically not an adult.
“Beyond violence and bad language, we also look at how characters talk to each other, if they’re respectful towards each other and their parents. What one five-year-old may enjoy, another may find upsetting, so we want to take some of the guesswork out of this process”, said Common Sense Media’s Jill Murphy.
Sky already has several safeguards in place to protect its younger viewers from accessing potentially disturbing content on TV and online. Sky Broadband Buddy allows parents to manage each screen in their home from an easy to use mobile app, while Kids Safe Mode for Sky Q and the Sky Kids app blocks content that might not be age appropriate.
“From toddlers to teens, it is our responsibility to keep families safe on Sky”, said Sky CEO Stephen van Rooyen.
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If you’d like to try out the new family friendly feature, Parents’ Guide will begin rolling out to all Sky Q customers from today and is expected to reach all Sky Q homes by the end of August. Once you have access to the feature, you’ll be able to find the Parents’ Guide on the Sky Q sidebar menu.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
