Sky Q update brings detailed list of how adult films are, alongside other new features

New personalised recommendations features will also be added

Sky Q goes on sale in February

A new Sky update has added a "Parents' Guide", intended to show exactly how adult films are.

The new feature ranks more than 3,500 films, Sky said, on a wide variety of different criteria. By looking at that screen, families should be able to decide whether a film is too mature for the children who want to watch them.

The new feature was created in partnership with Common Sense Media and includes a wide variety of different rankings. It shows a ranking of between zero and five across seven different categories, intended to help parents.

The rankings don't simply focus on traditional categories like violence or sexual imagery, but also allow parents to see whether a film includes too much consumerism or positive role models.

Each film will be ranked for "Violence & Scariness", "Positive Messages", "Consumerism", "‘Sexy Stuff’", "Positive Role Models & Representation", "Language", "Drinking, Drugs & Smoking" and "Educational Value".

The rankings are intended to sit alongside the traditional film age ratings, and are ranked in that context. If a film is a "12", for instance, then it will be watched and rated as it might appear to a pre-teen.

The new screen will show on any movie on Sky, including films in Sky Cinema, the Sky store or other channels. The parents guide can then be accessed through the Sky Q settings screen.

“Our goal is to give Sky customers trusted information, so they can decide what movies work for them," said Jill Murphy from Common Sense Media, in a statement. "Our ratings are based on child development and what they are ready for, no matter what the age classification says.

"Beyond violence and bad language, we also look at how characters talk to each other, if they’re respectful towards each other and their parents. What one five-year-old may enjoy, another may find upsetting, so we want to take some of the guesswork out of this process.”

As well as the new features, a further update will later bring a separate change to allow people to see personalised recommendations for what they should be watching. It will take information on what films and genres a user has watched in the past, as well as "trending" shows that everyone is watching.

The parents guide will start rolling out straight away and will be pushed to every Sky Q box by the end of August. The personalisation updates will be out "later this summer", Sky said.