How to Disable the “TV” Tab on Plex for Tablets? (Parental Control Issue)

Plex Players Mobile Devices
1

Hi everyone,

My son uses Plex on his tablet, which has access to my NAS where I store family photos and educational documentaries for kids — basically, quality content.
There’s no time restriction; he can watch whenever he wants.

However, I recently noticed his tablet screen time skyrocketing, and he started talking about TV shows that are definitely not age-appropriate. Then I realized what was happening…

On the tablet version of Plex, there’s a “TV” tab that shows content offered directly by Plex — unlike the mobile or desktop versions, where this tab doesn’t appear (or can be hidden).
Unfortunately, it seems impossible to remove or disable this “TV” section, and I absolutely don’t want him to have access to that content — especially not from his tablet.

Has anyone else run into this problem?
Do you know any workaround or hack to block or hide the “TV” tab on Plex for tablets?

Thanks in advance for any help!

2

Assuming you created a managed user for your kid – you should be able to disable any online media sources (by setting them to Disabled or Disabled for Managed Accounts).
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/online-media-sources

If the section is from a your DVR, you should be able to restrict their access to that too.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/204232573-restricting-the-shares/

3

I had the same issue. I disabled the online sources for managed accounts in plex as per @tom80H advice.

I then needed to clear the app data from the tablet and reauthenticate to get the options to be removed from profile on that device, otherwise it just stays with the old settings and is never removed.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
4

Thank you very much for your feedback. I found the problem thanks to your help. Actually, I had created an account for my son, but it turns out you need to create it through the Plex admin interface as a linked account. If you create a regular account first and link it afterwards, it doesn’t work.

5

individual plex account (unmanaged home account) have their own options and controls, the same way you can disable online sources, so can each individual plex account.

if you created his individual plex account, you can simply log into it @ https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/online-media-sources and change to your preference, unfortunately if he has that account password, then he can simply log in and make his own modifications as well. If he has your main plex account password, he can also do the same thing.

So really the only way you can control it is he does not have the account credentials for either his individual account or your admin account.