MPTF/MPTF Discussions/Parental Controls

Submitter: CableLabs

Tracker Issue ID: ISSUE-36

Description:

HTML5 should support parental controls for managing content available to their children.

1. Content ratings and other metadata information related to the content should be available to the parental control system. This information should be included with guide scheduling data as well as with the actual content.
2. It should be possible for parents to subscribe to independent parental control services.
3. The data and the system for managing playback should be secure

Motivation:

1. Support for parental controls for both scheduled and on-demand content.

Dependencies:

1. Existing parental control standards (e.g. V-Chip)
2. Existing parental control services (e.g. NetNanny)

What needs to be standardized

1. The means and formats for communicating parental control metadata and information between the parental control system, the media player and the program guide.
   1. A mechanism to inform Web content that media playback has stopped because the media's content rating has exceeded the content rating threshold has been exceeded. This applies when parental controls are implemented by the user agent. This could be a new media error code or media event.
   2. A mechanism to inform Web content of the media's content rating. This should be available when the media is loaded and when the content rating changes.

Comments: