Upgraded Ford MyKey blocks explicit satellite radio channels

Teenage radio listeners might have to look somewhere else besides the family Ford for the Playboy channel or Howard Stern.

The new generation of Ford's programmable MyKey system will let parents block "explicit" radio channels on the Sirius/XM satellite service in their cars.

That would cover Playboy's and Stern's channels, as well as more than a dozen music channels, such as rapper Eminem's Shade 45 and the hard-rock Boneyard.

The new MyKey will be standard on the Taurus and the Explorer next year, Ford says, and will be an option on other models.

MyKey also mutes the radio until the seatbelt is buckled. It allows parents to preset a top speed limit between 65 and 80 mph for the vehicle and prevents the driver from deactivating some safety technologies, such as traction control. The system was first launched on several Ford vehicles in summer 2009.

By Dale Jewett