Most (perhaps all) cable and satellite tv systems require several pieces of equipment be set on certain channels and settings to allow their signal to be displayed on the monitor.

Any child over 4 months-of-age is delighted by the prospect of turning your tv in to a potted plant holder while you try desperately to figure out which button they touched rendered your system unusable. This dance can take hours... and if you're over 65, it may require an in-home service call to remedy. How about a "child button" on the remote that locks it where you left it until you select the child button once more to disarm the lock. Sure, some kid may unlock it, but that problem is about 5000 times less likely to happen than that same youngster reeking havoc with an unlocked remote!
-- jon3, Jan 01 2003

Magna-Trigger http://www.tarnhelm.../writerscorner.html
[half, Oct 04 2004]

Adult Grip for Childproof Remotes http://www.halfbake...hildproof_20Remotes
Unashamed self promotion. [st3f, Oct 04 2004]

Conceptually good, as long as it's not adult-proof. I locked my handphone once. I had to throw it away.

Y'know, my buddy lets his son use the remote as a toy phone. It's cheaper than a phone, especially when dialing Fiji and the child knows no difference.
-- FloridaManatee, Jan 02 2003


Take the batteries out. Or tie the kid's thumbs together.
-- angel, Jan 02 2003


You can get small cable ties from radio-shack. A determined kid can probably chew through these, so you need to keep his hands behind his back.

OTOH, don't.
-- FloridaManatee, Jan 02 2003


Simply build some fingerprinting or retina scanning device into the remote.
-- kpx, Jan 02 2003


Shelves are good. Keep things on shelves. Shelves.
-- my face your, Jan 02 2003


//Keep things on shelves// Such as the kids?
-- angel, Jan 02 2003


No, they stay in the cupboards, keeping the shelf-space free for knick-knacks and bric-a-brac.
-- my face your, Jan 02 2003


Adapt the "Magna-Trigger" saftey system to television remotes?
-- half, Jan 02 2003


Like this? <link>
-- st3f, Jan 02 2003


Our three year old knows exactly which buttons to press on which remote to get what she wants. She also knows that if she presses the wrong buttons the TV becomes "broken" and she can't watch what she wants. She also knows to put the remote out of the baby's reach otherwise ditto. IOW, what [UB] said.
-- egbert, Jan 02 2003



random, halfbakery