US 5,973,683 · Granted 1999-10-26

IBM's 1999 Patent for Parental Controls That Learn Your Kid's Viewing Habits

Imagine a TV system that learns what you watch and automatically enforces rules based on a profile you set up—blocking certain shows, tracking how much "good" versus "bad" content you consume, and adjusting access based on your behavior over time. This patent describes the brains behind smart content filtering that combines personal rules with outside ratings from multiple sources.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a dynamic system for filtering television content based on a customizable viewer profile, content ratings from external sources, and accumulated viewing history. What's protected here is the specific method of: storing a viewer's profile and preferences, receiving and categorizing content classifications, measuring time spent on desirable versus undesirable content, and then adjusting what content is shown or blocked based on that tracked behavior. The system also covers pulling in ratings from multiple external sources that users can rank and edit themselves.

Why it matters

This patent captures the core concept of adaptive parental controls—a feature that became standard in cable boxes, streaming services, and smart TVs in the 2000s onward. IBM filed this during the early internet era when concerns about children's unfiltered media access were rising sharply. The innovation was teaching a system to enforce rules not just statically, but dynamically, learning and adjusting based on actual viewing patterns over time, rather than simple on-off blocking.

Real-world use

When you set up parental controls on a streaming service or cable box today and it starts limiting what appears based on your previous choices and time spent watching, you're using the principle this patent locked down.

Original USPTO abstract

A user friendly method for regulating the media environment of a television viewer by controlling content displayed on the television. The method controls content in response to a viewer's profile, accumulated viewing time and at least one content classification source. A viewer's profile is provided by a user which determines guidelines for an individual viewer. Content classification values for television are received and stored in response to a viewer's request for viewing a program. The content classification values correspond to television program availability and values attributed to viewing time. The content classification values are categorized into desirable content and undesirable content. The viewer profile data associates a viewer with a content classification value. Thereafter, the quantity of time a viewer spends viewing desirable content and the quantity of time a viewer spends viewing undesirable content is determined. In response to a multidimensional user selected censorship structure, the media environment of the viewer is regulated. The censorship structure utilizes variables such as content classification values, rating value, rankings of rating sources and viewing time credits for desirable material and viewing time debits for undesirable material. Additionally, the method down-loads the content classification values from multiple sources utilizing an interconnected computer. Many sources can be queried utilizing the user selected ranking of rating sources and the user can edit the ratings. The present invention controls the television environment in response to past behavior of a viewer.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,973,683
Filing date: 1997-11-24
Grant date: 1999-10-26
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
Inventor(s): CRAGUN; BRIAN JOHN, DAY; PAUL REUBEN
CPC class: H04N7/163

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