TiVo’s most recent press release provides more detail on the up coming KidZone feature as well as some research that TiVo performed on the average child’s TV viewing habits. The research came up with some interesting facts that I wouldn’t have expected. This information underscores the importance of TiVo KidZone.

Analysis of ratings data from Nielsen shows that actual daytime television viewership of children, ages 6 – 11, increases over 150 percent during the summer. In addition, adult and adult female viewing patterns during that time remain unchanged, implying that much of that increase in children’s viewership is even more unsupervised than usual.

• 64 percent of parents of children under 18 say they are concerned (either very or somewhat concerned) that their children will see TV that does not reflect their family’s values or isn’t safe to watch.
• 55 percent of parents of children under 18 say they don’t receive any guidance in this regard, whereas just 19 percent turn to newspapers, television or magazines to help inform those choices.
• 81 percent of all Americans do not utilze any blocking technology that prevents programming with a certain rating from coming into their homes.
• 62 percent of all Americans were concerned about what children are watching on television, which compares with 64 percent of parents of children under 18 who said they were concerned. This is a remarkable state of consensus that reflects a consistency of viewpoints among all Americans on this issue.

I’m the proud parent of a 16 month old boy so I don’t plan on using the KidZone feature just yet. With that being said, I look forward to being able to use KidZone when my son is old enough to watch TV. We all know that there is a lot of junk out there that a child shouldn’t watch. TiVo’s new KidZone feature attempts to protect children from all this junk. Thanks to TiVo, you now have an easy way to control what your child watches. If you haven’t read up on the new KidZone feature, I recommend you do. You can also put your TiVo on the priority list so that you get it as soon as possible.

Thanks TiVo for continuing to innovate and in this case protect our children!