Netflix 360 Update Gets Kid Friendly

The "Just For Kids" section not only seperates Netflix's standard movie and television genres, but also allows the user to search by characters which can be found without having to type in the character's name and is located on the main area of the new section. This feature makes it easy for young children who cannot read yet to shout out the names of their favorite characters that they want to watch. Case in point, my living room lit up like it was Christmas morning when my two year discovered the character icons that were for "Thomas The Train", "Spongebob Squarepants", and "Dora The Explorer" would take him to his favorite shows without mommy and daddy having to choose for him allowing him to be feel a bit more independent.

David Watson, Director of Product Innovation for Netflix on the kids and family friend end stated on his blog that the "Just For Kids" area of Netflix is very "popular" among their users on the PC, PS3, and various other devices so they "are sure it will also be a hit on Xbox 360".

This update has been met with criticism with some Xbox 360 users saying they don't need it and wish they could disable it, others wishing for back to back play features instead of a kid only section along with various other updates and the addition of new shows and their episodes, and there is also the simple fact that this feature has been available to PS3 users since March 2012 and Wii users since November of 2011. Ouch!

What do you think? Was this a necessary update that Netflix needed for families with young children or was this just a waste of time when Netflix should have been concentrating on refreshing their content and adding options to make it easier for the user to use the app?