Smart TVs and Streaming Devices
TVs have no parental-control ecosystem worth trusting — which is exactly where network filtering shines. Here's how to protect the biggest screen in the house.
The smart TV problem
Smart TVs and streaming sticks (Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV) stream from apps, not browsers — so browser extensions don't exist, on-device parental controls are inconsistent at best, and content ratings filters are easy to change or ignore. The biggest screen in the house is often the least protected one. Network-level filtering fixes that structurally: the TV joins the Guardian Wi-Fi and its traffic is filtered like everything else, with no cooperation from the TV required.
What to set
- Assign the TV to the right profile. If kids use it, assign it to their profile — but a shared living-room TV usually belongs to an adult profile, with the kids' viewing handled by profile-locked app accounts.
- Block streaming-adjacent risks: our categories cover the sketchy side-channel apps and adult platforms that ship with TV app stores.
- Use app-level PINs too: network filtering blocks destinations; the Netflix kids profile PIN handles in-app content boundaries. They solve different problems.
Worth knowing
Some TVs and sticks hard-code public DNS servers that try to skip the network's filtering — the gateway catches this pattern. If a TV seems to be reaching something it shouldn't, check the activity log before the TV's own settings.