US Cable Support > Charter Internet/TV > How to block porn from On-Demand channels?

How to block porn from On-Demand channels?

You did say teenager, who will proab figure this out anyway. Just block those channels with your add/delete channel feature I am sure your TV has. When you set up the TV and scanned for channels, there has to be a way to delete channels from displaying when your channel surfing. This is kinda weak protection, but is is better than nothing.

I deleted them from my channel lineup so channel-up and channel-down won't stumble across them, but the kids already know what numbers to push for the VOD channels. I contacted my TV manufacturer -- hopefully they can provide a firmware upgrade to require a PIN to jump-surf to a deleted channel or to change the channel lineup. It would be nice if Charter would correctly insert an X-rated signal on all those VOD channels all the time.

I found some tunable analog channel traps for sale online. Maybe they can help, although I've heard its hard for a channel trap to stop a digital signal. Tiny Ones and Zeros still produce a picture compared to a full-strength 1 and 0.

reply to Anon3446
I would complain to Charter about this. Specifically I would go to your local or regional office with a letter in hand outlining your concerns and ask to speak with the office supervisor. These channels can be and are encrypted in many areas. I doubt it is that difficult for them to do this encryption and I don't understand why it is done in some areas and not others.

As much as I like Charter, one of my main gripes with them is the difficulty in communicating with them about concerns or even compliments for that matter. There should be a well publicized email address for this kind of thing on a local, regional and national level with the expectation of a "real response" in a reasonable time period. Try as I might, I have never been able to find this kind of communication avenue. I ultimately ended up emailing the Charter CEO about a much more trivial issue and lo and behold, I received a phone call within 30" from someone in the St. Louis office. Still waiting to see if that will create action.

Sorry for that rant but getting back to my original point, the only effective way I believe you can communicate your concern, know it was heard and I think likely acted upon is my above suggestion. I think your concern is very legitimate and deserves attention, especially as many Charter markets already block VOD through encryption.

reply to Anon3446
You don't say where you are, but if your town/city is typical of most, you have someone in local government who oversees the contract that Charter has with your locality.

I would contact your town or city hall, and find out who that person is. I've found that for local issues like this, you get things done a lot faster going through the local government contact than you do by going to Charter first. They usually have the names and local phone numbers of Charter employees who can do something about this on a local level. Having porn go through the system unscrambled is not something Charter would like your local government to be hearing about.

If that fails, put a bug in the ear of a local newspaper or TV reporter. This is stuff they like to publicize, and you can bet Charter will plug that leak pronto. They scramble the premium movie packages so you can't see them, so there's no reason technically why their on-demand can't be scrambled as well. They're just cheap or lazy, or both.
--
Worcester MA
Charter Pipeline 3M
Charter digital cable with HD
Vonage VOIP phone

Should be a trap out there that can block the unencrypted QAM channels...but:

Doc Casualty is completely wrong, the encryption is a lot harder. ( Not from a technical/technology standpoint...but an operational one. Not just a charter problem; also Motorola one. )

I assure you Charter is aware of this problem, it is being worked on.

Charter is not the only MSO with unencrypted QAM channels either.

reply to Anon3446
It's probably a matter of personal style but I think the company deserves a chance to respond to an issue before you unleash Big Brother on them. Sure, if they blow you off or are unreasonable, pull your trump card. Just my two cents.

reply to useless7
useless, I am always happy to stand corrected and learn something new. VOD is not encrypted/blocked in any areas? I know I have never run across it on my channel searches but that could be by chance. I understood that many Charter areas do this. Am I wrong?

reply to Doc Casualty

As my rant above, I am in total agreement with you on the inability to communicate with Charter, other than in person. I used to be able to email through the support page and get a response from the regional office in Traverse City. Now I just get an automated response telling me to use LiveChat; LOL

reply to Anon3446
We do have a trap to block vod in my system, I would assume that all system's would have a trap for vod if the customer requested it to be trapped out.

reply to Doc Casualty

usesless,

Sure, Comcast is one of the biggest players. However, my question is, does Charter encrypt it in any of their areas? Or are you trying to say that Comcast has VOD unencrypted in all of their areas, therefore Charter must also? If so, than I have learned something and I'll bet others did also.

I really am just trying to ask an honest question here and not be an a$$. Printed word can sometimes not convey true intent. If you feel I am being sarcastic, then I apologize for whatever mis-representation I seem to have made.

Again, I do understand that one must have a QAM tuner and be searching for these channels while someone on your node has ordered VOD. Thanks for that clarification.

"Privacy Mode", as it is known, is enabled in my area; can't speak for others, but I'm sure other areas do as well.

Why some do and others don't -- I don't have that answer.

Thanks defiant!

reply to Anon3446
We had complainants similar to yours and we ended up encrypting them or trapping the vod I'm not sure. But we did resolve it for the customers.

reply to Anon3446
Man. There are people complainging about free channels? How about this: You are a parent. Tell your kids they may not watch porn in your home. If you catch them, and you will, use your parental rights and punish the children.

With everyone complaining about the price of cable these days it amazes me that there are those that complain when they stumble upon some freebies.

How about you walk down to the library and complain because they have free books with pictures of naked amazonian women in them? How about you ask the librarian to filter the computers so the kiddes don't access porn on them? You do know that most libraries do not filter right?

As a poster above stated this is a teenager. If they are already manually typing in the channel numbers when they know you don't approve then you have a bigger problem than occasional VOD porn not being encrypted.

First of all, pictures of naked Amazonian women in a library, as you put it, is NOT porn -- at least not to the level one may witness of the VOD channels in question.

Second, the question was "how do I block this," not "If someone here doesn't meet my demands, I'm suing!"

So let's try to not fall back on the old crutches, shall we?

I hear ya...I just personally think it's much ado about nothing.

It's just weird in our society that animated violence in media is ok, but people having sex (which is about as dangerous as a visit to the mall) isn't. It's ok to watch The Lord Of The Rings, and see thousands slaughtered in a fantasy movie. But people getting naked and having safe nonviolent fun isn't. It's an equally weird double standard that naked amazonian women are ok, and naked Jenna Jameson's aren't.

And yes, as a parent I use this philosophy as a guide with my children too. Talk to your child, and this won't be the problem you think it is. As far as Charter is concerned, they should be able to install a filter on your line.