Parental control settings are provided to a display device by a user. In one embodiment, the display device generates a message, such as a consumer electronic control (CEC) message, which corresponds to the user-provided parental control settings. This message may then be transmitted to one or more source devices to which the display device is connected via an HDMI interface. The HDMI-connected devices may then modify or otherwise conform their own parental control settings in accordance with the parent control data in the received message. In one embodiment, the display device may then receive content from the HDMI-connected devices which has already been pre-filtered in accordance with the parental control settings that were provided directly to the display device.