[theredguy]

Sorry to rehash something that has been discussed already (many times). I did a search and read through a lot of threads and I can see that there are a lot of options and opinions. I was hoping to get updated thoughts from people with children about the best approach for handling Kids + XBMC. Here are some of my wants/thoughts:

- I'd rather not rely on some "rating system" to determine which TV Shows and Movies my kids will have access to. I am fine with having separate folders on my NAS, and I can drop things wherever I think is appropriate.

- I'm not sure if it's better to use separate profiles for master and kids, or just use smart playlists within the same profile with a skin that lets me keep things sort of separate. Separate profile is nice to give complete separation so the kids don't even have the sources for adult (in the non-kids sense) content. But separate profiles is a bit more cumbersome with all the logging in/out business.

- If using profiles, I'm not sure if I want the master to just see everything, or just the non-kids stuff.

- My kids are probably too young now, but soon they may be able to find their way to non-kids stuff through file view and what not. I don't really leave them unattended for very long so it isn't a concern right now. But it would be nice to go in a direction that naturally gives me a way to fully lock them out in a year or two.

- Music is a whole different animal. I'm not sure if I care enough to make separation for music. We have stuff that is clearly children's music, and some of my music may have a bit more cussin' than I'd like my kids to be hearing. But there is also a sort of middle grey area - the crappy pop music that my kids and wife may both listen to (I just met you, this is CRAZY..). So I don't know...

Anyway I think I have a decent understanding about how I can achieve different levels of separation, but I'd like to know what people are ACTUALLY doing.

[nokdim]

profiles is the way I went.
like you said my kids are smart enough to access stuff through the file view and I dont want to chance it so I made a profile for them that has access to only the content I want them to access as well as addons.

I use master for myself and log them into their own profile when they want to watch stuff.

I also setup a mobile profile which I only use when we are mobile on mobile devices since I got a Patriot Gauntlet and those sources are only available when I boot up the Patriot when we are on the go this way the content is only available when we are on the road.

You can use playlists and separate sources but knowing myself when I was a kid I would have figured out how to find the "good" stuff regardless.

[abnranger]

I am kind in the same situation. I used to use Media Browser where I was able to create a separate profile/movie list for myself and for my son. Basically in MB, when you launch it, there would be a separate icon that had his name which meant it was his movies, and you would see an icon that had my name for my movies. How can I do that with XBMC?

[nokdim]

Under system there is a profile option select that and select create new profile.
When XBMC launches it will have an icon for each profile.
You can password protect certain things like music, video, settings...