What are your kids watching this summer?

During the lazy days of summer when I was a kid, the only thing my parents had to worry about me watching on TV was one of the three channels we could pick up on the rotary tv antenna. Now, our kids are being bombarded from every angle possible with content from screens big and small. How can a parent filter out some of the questionable content when you aren't with your child 24/7?

Take advantage of the parental controls. Netflix has Netflix Kids, a stripped down version of Netflix that doesn't show the darker side of Netflix. You can also enable a PIN for shows rated above a certain level. This will keep little Jimmy from accidental binge watching The Walking Dead.

Most streaming services have these handy parental controls. Amazon Prime allows you to set them by the device. That means you can require Parental Controls on Little Suzie's Smart TV and Little Jimmy's iPad, but you don't have to enact those forced rules on your personal iPad.

If in doubt just lock down all of the channels on your satellite to MeTV, and then they can only watch reruns of The Andy Griffth Show and MASH. It will still give them more viewing options than we had growing up. The plus side is they can learn to whistle the theme songs.