Family Tech Blog

Tag: movies

  • What the heck is a Quibi?

    What the heck is a Quibi?

    We’ve all seen ads for Quibi and it has officially launched. So what the heck is a Quibi? I first heard about Quibi at CES in 2019. I wasn’t sure what it was all about except that a lot of celebrities from different genres were endorsing (and likely investing) in the app. Turns out Quibi is a video streaming app designed for use on your mobile device. It was founded by Jefferey Katzenberg, of Disney productions fame, and features short, high-quality television shows news reports, sports features, and movies.

    Right now, the content on Quibi seems to be 100% original. In fact. A lot of the shows on Quibi are produced by and starring the celebrity backers that you see in the commercials. Shows star the likes of Chance the Rapper, Lebron James, Liam Hemsworth, and Chrissy Teigen.

    What the Heck Is a Quibi?

    Quibi features short-form content or normal length content split into short-form episodes. You can usually watch an episode in five to ten minutes and with episodes releasing daily it doesn’t take too long to get to the end of a series. I found myself interested in a show called Murder House Flip, a blend of true crime and home improvement. The first story, renovating a house where a gruesome murder took place thirty years ago, took three episodes to complete. Total running time was similar to that of a half-hour show on TV if you account for ad breaks.

    image: Quibi

    Watching Murder House Flip is where it clicked for me. Quibi isn’t all that different than television except for being formatted for your mobile device. It is a new concept for high definition, highly produced shows, and movies to flip to verticle mode when you tilt your phone but that’s about where the innovation stops in my opinion. Television has always been featured in short bits, split up by advertising. The difference here is that the content is a bit shorter overall, including the advertising content. I think Quibi is more of a tv channel than a world-changing app.

    What Parents Should Know

    There is currently no content on Quibi for children. The shows on Quibi, like most streaming services, are rated 14+ up to Mature. You will hear adult language and see some adult themes as well. Most content wouldn’t even be very entertaining for most younger viewers. I would rate the app 16+. As I mentioned above, the idea that Quibi is innovative is only partly accurate. Younger digital natives will see this concept as new. One show being split into several parts separated by ads is pretty new to young ones who are used to clicking play and binging, ad-free, and interruption-free with whole seasons of shows being released all at once. Those of us who lived through Saturday morning cartoons and TGIF every week aren’t so impressed.

    I will remind you that the content on Quibi is considered rated teen or higher. Many of the shows feature adult language, extreme violence, and some sexual content. While you may enjoy Quibi, since the shows are new and feature some celebrities that we all love, I wouldn’t recommend it for your kids.

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  • iPhone, Netflix, and Instagram are Dominating Teen’s Time Online

    iPhone, Netflix, and Instagram are Dominating Teen’s Time Online

    A new survey by research firm Piper Jaffaray called “Taking Stock with Teens” has highlighted some of the most noticeable trends in teenagers’ purchasing habits and tastes. The survey polled more than 8,000 teenagers about how they spend their money and what influences their purchase decisions. The average age of teens surveyed is 16 and the survey is done every spring and fall. The Fall 2018 survey revealed a dominating presence by iPhone, Netflix, and Instagram.

    The survey concluded that 82% of teens owned an iPhone and 86% planned to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone. The iPhone has dominated the marketshare for a while now but it’s still growing in the Teen market. Only 10% of teens said they planned to buy an Android phone. Nearly half of those surveyed said that the brand of a product had a major influence on their decision to purchase.

    Instagram is now the social media leader among teenagers passing up Snapchat and Netflix provides the most streaming video to our adolescent kids at 38% of the share vs 33% for YouTube. Other interesting info from the survey is that food is the highest budget priority for teens, they prefer to shop online, and the majority of video game purchases are now made through online download.

    What Parents Should Know

    This info is meant to help marketers plan their products and advertising campaigns but it can go a long way to help moms and dads and other guardians of kids better understand how our teenagers tick. The emphasis on the iPhone speaks to the exclusive nature of the brand, the appeal of feeling like you belong to a niche group causes kids to move towards a brand that is considered to be more premier than the rest. Instagram has passed snapchat by adding much of the features that kids loved about Snapchat without changing the core timeline of the app. Snapchat has admitted to making a mistake by altering what made their app popular with the younger crowd. After going public, Snap made decisions to buffer their ability to become a marketing destination for companies. This undermined their core fanbase of kids and teens who are more likely to skip an ad or unfollow an account that seems to be too “pitchy.”

    Netflix is now a more popular video streaming service among teens than YouTube, though not by much. The focus on original content and many of our kids’ favorite stars creating shows and movies for Netflix is driving them to use the streaming service. There has also been a surge in younger people enjoying television shows from the past twenty years or so because of Netflix’s ability to keep those shows streaming on their service. While YouTube is pushing their own TV solution, Netflix is just continuing to build upon the genres they created and it seems to be drawing in folks from most demographics.

    I want to conclude by mentioning again that kids are buying their video games through online downloads. This means that the restrictions on games have to be set digitally or your kids can buy whatever games they’d like. If you have set up their Xbox Live or Playstation accounts to make purchases then they can buy whatever games they’d like without any restriction. You have to set that up yourself. There is no longer a cashier at the store who will ask to see your kids id when they try to buy a game that is rated M for mature. It is up to you to get those settings set up.

    This data is super helpful for us, as parents, to understand our kids’ preferences and influences. Information like this can help us make quality decisions and chose the right battles when trying to protect our kids from adult content, online predators, cyberbullying, and other dangers of using the internet with no filters or boundaries. Subscribe to our newsletter, our YouTube account, our Twitter and Facebook, and to our podcast to stay in the know as to what’s happening in the digital and connected culture your kids are growing up in.

  • The Risks of a Fully Connected Home Part 3

    The Risks of a Fully Connected Home Part 3

    Security and advertising are the most obvious concerns when it comes to connecting your appliances and devices via smarthome technology. We must take precautions to protect our identity and our privacy. We should also be careful in our new wifi connected homes with the content that can come across these connections. In this final part of our Connected Home series we’ll talk about the content available on our smarthome devices and what we can do to filter that content.

    Unsupervised Content

    After a recent Setting Digital Boundaries workshop a  mother asked me what I knew about the parental controls on Amazon Echo. I hadn’t ever set one up and hadn’t really looked into them so I didn’t have many answers for her at the time. She told me why she had asked: her daughter likes to ask Echo to play songs that she likes but she’s young and her words don’t always come out sounding like they should. This causes the Echo to mis-hear what is said and the devices has, more than once, played a song that is not from any playlist they’ve set up and is not at all appropriate for a young toddler. With the increasing popularity of the Amazon Alexa and Google Home parental controls are becoming a major topic on tech forums and blogs. The reason it’s such a major part of the discussion is because there aren’t (yet) any real parental controls.

    On the Amazon products you can set a pin to make purchases. This will keep your child from making an order and you being shocked to find a two hundred dollar doll house at your door. That’s about it, though. There aren’t any music or video rating limits that you can set. There aren’t any separate voice commands that will let Alexa know the child is in the room. So far, there isn’t much. Google only has the filter settings you’ve given YouTube to protect from inappropriate content. These filters are strictly for video content though and won’t block explicit lyrics.

    It’s likely that more effective parental controls will become a reality on these popular products sooner rather than later but until then you should take precautions to keep your children from encountering more of the internet then you’re ready for them to connect to. 

    What Parents Should Know

    My advice is to hold off on extensive use of Alexa, Echo, or Google Home until real parental control options are made available. If you have already been using these devices or you’ve decided you can’t live without them I recommend setting up what restrictions are available. Protect yourself from surprise purchases with a pin on your Alexa or Echo and set your YouTube filter to protect your children from videos you wouldn’t want them to see. Other apps or web video and audio services that have parental controls may protect your family when connected through your smarthome device as well. Right now this is about all you can do but if you’re going to use these devices then something is better than nothing.

    Should Your Home Be Connected?

    The level of connectivity in your home is obviously a choice your family has to make. There are absolute benefits to having your house connected to a network and working together to make your life easier. The reality, though, is that these conveniences could come at a cost. Some may feel the cost isn’t that high and some may say it’s unfounded fear or foil hat conspiracy theory. My advice is to just stay informed. No matter your decision become a student of the way your connected home works. Reset passwords often, and don’t store your personal data somewhere that is easily accessible through your smart home device network. If you just use common sense and think ahead of the potential risks you may be able to be wired up like it’s the year 2025. Just do it with wisdom.

  • QUICK! Go Set Up a Kids’ Profile on Your HULU Account

    QUICK! Go Set Up a Kids’ Profile on Your HULU Account

    The benefits of having a kids’ profile on your video streaming services are many. Keeping their eyes off of some of the obviously adult oriented content, collecting all of their favorite shows in one place so they’re easy to access, and most importantly (not really) keeping your recommended shows list clear of Daniel Tiger and Lalaloopsy. While the convenience of these profiles has been known for a while, some streaming services have yet to offer the option. Well, today Hulu has been added to the list of streaming options that will make it easier to protect your kids while they watch.

    While Kids profiles aren’t meant to be parental controls, they are a place for children to browse Hulu without accidentally running into mature content. A user with a Kids profile won’t be able to access Watchlist, search, recommendations, and auto-resume functions. – HULU Help Center

    Profiles will be available right away on hulu.com and soon on their mobile apps, smart tv, and media player apps. Just select the “Add a Profile” on the welcome screen or from the “Account” dropdown on the website then follow the steps to create your account. You can create up to six profiles and you will receive the option to label them “Kids” accounts. This will, as mentioned in the quote above, allow your kids to watch their favorite shows on HULU without the chance of running into adult oriented programs and suggestions. Some other features, including auto-resume (which is a bummer,) will be disabled but you’ll have a bit more peace of mind.

     

     

    Hulu is a monthly subscription streaming service that has many HBO and NBC shows as well as movies and original programming. Similar to Netflix, HULU has been creating their own shows for a little while now and have exclusive rights to become the only place to view some shows and movies. Hulu is allowing new users to sign up and receive a month for free, after the first thirty days they will be charged $7.99 per month for access with “Limited Commercials” or $11.99 for a commercial free account. Why not go create an account and a few profiles and take the next thirty days to see what you think about it. We’re just happy more services are jumping on the “Kid Profile’s bandwagon.”

  • VidAngel Plays “The Devil’s Advocate”

    VidAngel Plays “The Devil’s Advocate”

    Streaming Filtered Hollywood Movies Sounds Awesome!

    A few weeks ago I downloaded an app that allows users to view movies with filters set. Cutting out nudity, language, suggestive themes, violence, all at your discretion, VidAngel turns some of the most “raunchy” movies into near family friendly entertainment. The problem is that, under current copyright laws, their methods are illegal.

    A recent ruling by a California federal judge has ordered VidAngel to stop their service immediately. The ruling states that the service provides content illegally and that their claim that they’re allowing users to “purchase” the film only applies to a physical copy of the DVD. That means they don’t have the right to stream a filtered copy (illegally copied according to the claims of Fox and Warner Bros) to their app’s users.

    “Subscribers view a stream from a master copy stored on a server, not a DVD temporarily “owned” by the user. Furthermore, lawful ownership of a DVD only conveys authorization to view the DVD, not decrypt it for the purpose of viewing it on an alternative platform. Therefore, VidAngel’s customers are not lawful “owners of possessors” of the digital content that is streamed via VidAngel’s service”. – US District Judge Andre Birotte Jr.

    The company claims that their service is using a loophole to remain legal. Subscribers “buy” a movie for $20, set their desired filters and view the film within 24 hours, and then “sell” it back for $19, resulting in a $1 rental of a filtered hollywood blockbuster. The US District Court in California has said this isn’t legal and their loophole isn’t valid. This doesn’t mean viewers are breaking the law, but it does mean that VidAngel is dangerously close to having to close down its service. In fact, they’ve already been asked to do just that, but they aren’t backing down.

    “We will aggressively pursue an appeal and take this case to a higher level where we have always believed we will ultimately prevail. – CEO Neal Harmon (VidAngel)

    VidAngel has not shut down their service as requested. They are trying to fight the legal battle and keep their service going. They have even raised millions from investors and subscribers to help with legal costs of the battle. Warner Brothers and Fox have recently filed to ask the court to find VidAngel in contempt. We will keep an eye on this continuing battle.

    Our Thoughts

    I am an advocate for filtering entertainment as long as it’s customized by the viewer themselves. I’ve always maintained that it’s up to the viewer or parent to decide what is and isn’t “too much” for their family’s standards. That said, I also believe in the right of a director, producer, and studio to protect their property. Streaming services such as Netflix and HULU pay for the rights to stream movie and TV content to their subscribers. This keeps the income flowing to the studios who produce these movies and allows quality content to be accessed by the users of the services. The problem comes when filtering is mentioned. Most studios and filmmakers don’t want their movies altered in any way. They even try, in this lawsuit, to make the case that VidAngel’s filtering isn’t legal. The judge ruled that allowing users to filter out unwanted content isn’t the same as adding material that changes the film altogether. That’s a win for VidAngel but it’s unlikely that permission to stream filtered movies will ever be given by movie studios and major motion picture companies. It’s just too close to breaking their creative rules.

    I don’t think VidAngel will be allowed to continue unless the laws are changed to make it possible. As these laws seem to be stated now, VidAngel isn’t handling copyrights properly and are misinterpreting a loophole to try to justify it. I will uninstall the app and not rent movies from VidAngel for the same reason I don’t watch live sports streamed illegally online and don’t download software illegally. It makes me feel icky knowing that it even though it may not be technically illegal it isn’t technically legal either.

     

  • KNOW YOUR MOVIE RATINGS

    KNOW YOUR MOVIE RATINGS

     

    What’s that movie rated?

    It’s too important to ignore. While we are protecting our children online, we also have to work to protect them from other content they shouldn’t be accessing. That includes movies designed for those above their maturity level. This short feature we did in 2015 unpacks the supposed mystery behind the movie ratings system in order to help parents make quality decisions for their children’s viewing habits. Watch the video below… (more…)