Patent ID: 8898691

Claim:
An access control method, comprising: responding to a power on event by determining a state of an access control setting associated with an access control application; responding to determining that the access control setting is asserted by: transitioning to a main page state and presenting a main page interface of the access control application, wherein the main page interface includes a plurality of selectable links providing controlled access to multimedia content, the plurality of selectable links including: a first television link; a my television link; and a setup link; and executing an authentication query to identify a class of a user in response to detecting a user request from the user; responding to detecting user selection of the first television link by transitioning to an all television choose state, wherein: a first subset of television content is available when the user is a controlled class user, wherein the first subset comprises a subset defined by a controlling class user; and all television content is available when the user is a subscriber class user; and responding to detecting user selection of the my television link by transitioning to a my television choose state, wherein: a first favorites subset of the first subset of television content is available when the user is a controlled class user, wherein the first favorites subset comprises a subset defined by the controlled class user; and a second favorites subset of all television content is available when the user is a subscriber class user, wherein the second favorites subset is defined by the subscriber class user; and responding to detecting user selection of the setup link by: transitioning to a parent setup state when the user is a subscriber class user, wherein the parent setup state enables the user to define favorites for the user and to define a domain from which a controlled class user may define favorites; and transitioning to a child setup state when the user is a controlled class user, wherein the child setup state enables the user to define favorites from the domain; and responding to determining that the access control setting is not asserted by: transitioning to a live television state; and responding to a subsequent user request for content by processing the subsequent user request without determining a class of the user.