Netflix: the parent’s setup guide
Per-profile maturity ratings, PIN locks, and Title Restrictions for specific shows.
Netflix parental controls are set per profile, not per account, so every child needs their own profile with a maturity rating rather than sharing an adult one. Alongside the rating you can block individual shows by name under Title Restrictions, and a Profile Lock PIN keeps a child out of the adult profiles. Netflix requires that same PIN to play titles downloaded from a locked profile.
Kid profiles and maturity ratings
Netflix’s parental controls live per-profile, not per-account. Every kid needs their own profile with an age-appropriate maturity rating, and the adult profiles need a Profile Lock or the rating is trivially bypassed by switching profile.
Setup
- Sign in at netflix.com/account.
- Select Profiles, then “Adjust parental controls”, then choose your kid’s profile. Netflix verifies you with a code sent to your email or phone, or your account password.
- Set the Maturity Rating level you want, then Save. In the mobile app the same control is My Netflix › profile name › Manage Profiles › the profile › Viewing Restrictions › Maturity Rating.
- Under Title Restrictions, type the name of a show or movie to block it from that profile. In the app the same control is called Block Titles.
- Profile Lock — under Profiles › the profile › Profile Lock, create a 4-digit PIN on every adult profile.
- Turn off autoplay under Profiles › the profile › Playback settings, which is where both “Autoplay Next Episode” and “Autoplay previews” live.
What the maturity levels actually are
There are no named tiers to choose between. You pick a rating, and Netflix says the profile “will only see shows, movies, and games with a rating at or below that level”. In the US it groups the ratings like this, and notes they “may vary by region”:
- Recommended for Kids — TV-Y, TV-Y7, G, TV-G, PG, TV-PG.
- Recommended for Teens — PG-13, TV-14.
- Recommended for Adults — R, TV-MA, NC-17.
Where you land inside those bands is your call, not Netflix’s: TV-Y and TV-Y7 for under-7s, up to PG or TV-PG for roughly 7–10, and PG-13 or TV-14 for early teens is a reasonable starting point. Separately, marking a profile as a Kids profile switches on the Netflix Kids experience, which simplifies the interface, removes direct access to account settings, and cannot have an email address added — so a child cannot sign in to Netflix directly from it. Note that the main profile on the account cannot be a Kids profile, and Kids-profile ratings and title blocks have to be edited in a web browser rather than the app.
Download rules
Kids can download titles for offline viewing. Netflix says that in a Kids profile, “downloaded TV shows and movies with higher maturity ratings may not be available to watch offline”. Be aware that downloads otherwise live on the device rather than in the profile: Netflix says they “are available on the device that was used to download them and you can view them from any of your Netflix profiles”. The exception is the one that matters here — a Profile Lock PIN is required “to open the profile or play titles downloaded from it”, so downloading from a locked profile is not a way around the lock.
Blocking one specific show
Netflix says a profile with a maturity level set “will only display titles that match the selected maturity rating level”. So the usual reason a parent wants more control is not a leak in the rating filter but a particular show that sits inside the rating and still isn’t welcome. Title Restrictions is the tool for that: type the name and it is removed from that profile. Netflix shows only the first 100 blocked titles in the list, so if you block heavily you will have to search for a title to unblock it later.
What was checked, and when. Maturity ratings, title blocks and profile locks verified against the vendor’s own documentation on 2026-09-08. Not reached in that pass: regional rating names.
Common questions
Where are Netflix’s parental controls?
Per profile, not per account — which is the detail most parents miss. Every child needs their own profile with its own maturity rating. On the web, go to your Account page, select Profiles, then “Adjust parental controls” and choose the profile.
Which Netflix maturity rating fits which age?
Netflix no longer uses named tiers. You pick a rating and the profile shows everything at or below it. Netflix groups the US ratings as Recommended for Kids (TV-Y, TV-Y7, G, TV-G, PG, TV-PG), Recommended for Teens (PG-13, TV-14) and Recommended for Adults (R, TV-MA, NC-17), and says ratings may vary by region. Where you land inside those bands is a parent’s judgement, not a Netflix setting.
A show above my child’s rating appeared in their profile. Why?
Netflix says a profile with a maturity level set “will only display titles that match the selected maturity rating level”, so check the rating on the profile first — and remember the profile may need a refresh, by switching profiles and back, to pick up a change. If the show is genuinely inside the rating and you still don’t want it, block it by name under Title Restrictions.
Do downloads respect the maturity rating?
Partly. Netflix says that in a Kids profile, downloaded titles “with higher maturity ratings may not be available to watch offline”. But downloads otherwise sit on the device rather than in one profile: Netflix says they “are available on the device that was used to download them and you can view them from any of your Netflix profiles”. The Profile Lock PIN is the real barrier — it is required to open the profile or play titles downloaded from it.
Should I PIN-lock the adult profiles?
Yes. Profile Lock requires a four-digit PIN to enter the profile, and without it a child simply switches profile and your rating settings become decorative. The same PIN is required to play titles downloaded from that profile.
When parental controls change
Streaming profile and PIN controls move between app versions. Roughly monthly we send new guides, changes to controls like these, and scams worth knowing about.
Free. No ads, no affiliate links, and we never sell or share your address.