can be augmented using these same methods the policy enforcement system may be implemented such that a user must enter a pin prior to operating the playback device after the playback device has been powered on by authenticating once pin entry is not required for those programs where the user 39 s pin is sufficient this allows the user access to all relevant content based on the data stored in the policy database until the device is powered off a timeout occurs or the user explicitly releases the authentication this process is achieved by modifying the policy enforcement process see fig4 moving the process block defined by steps 870 and 880 to the beginning of the process in order to obtain the pin once per session when a pin is required by step 850 the pin is supplied at the beginning of the modified process this process modification method may allow a more enjoyable user experience in that entering pin information repeatedly is minimized this process modification also provides a method to control metadata viewing authenticating the user and obtaining the pin prior to metadata display allows metadata to be filtered according to the rating policy database 500 configuration once stored actions rating actions 520 user actions.