Microsoft offer a free
tool to protect your children online. It can filter out the websites you don't want them to vist online and offers reporting tools so that you can see what websites your
child has been visiting. The following instructions are written for Windows XP
but the process should be fairly similar on Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Firstly, you will need
to ensure there are user accounts set up on your computer. You can check what accounts are on the computer by selecting Start and then clicking on Control Panel. From there open the ‘User Accounts’ category and you should get a dialog similar to the one below.
You will need a password protected administrator account that only the parent can log into. This will be used to change the settings of the website filtering. You will also need an account for each child set up as a limited account which means the computer restricts what they can do. If you don’t already have an administrator account other than the default account named ‘Administrator’, you’ll need to create another.
Click on ‘Create a new
account’, give it a name and then click next. Ensure that ‘Computer
administrator’ is selected and click ‘Create Account’. Next, you’ll have to add a password to
this account. You can do this by clicking on the account you just created in
the bottom part of the window and then clicking ‘Create a password’. Follow the
on screen prompts and then click ‘Create Password’. Lastly, click ‘Yes, Make
Private’.
Click the ‘Back’
button at the top of the window and follow the same process as above to create
an account for each of your children. IMPORTANT:
Ensure the account type is set to ‘Limited’ for each of these accounts.
Passwords aren’t important for these accounts. But you may want to let your
child create a password.
NOTE: After setup, do not leave either administrator account
logged in and make sure your children doesn’t know the password for either of these accounts as these have the ability to disable the Family Safety controls.
You will then need to
download the Family Safety software from Microsoft’s website. A version for
Windows XP can be found here:
And a version for
Windows Vista and Windows 7 can be found here:
Select your language
and click the ‘Download Now’ button.
A prompt will appear
asking if you want to run or save the file, select run. You’ll be then asked
again to confirm you want to run the software. Again, click the ‘Run’ button.
Next a dialog will
appear asking what components of Windows Live you want to install. Windows Live
is a suite of software and includes options for Email, Photo Browsing, Instant
Messaging and Writing tasks. We are only concerned with Family Safety in this
article so make sure only Family Safety is selected as shown in the window below.
Lastly, click the
install button and wait for the installation to finish.
Once installed, the
software can be found in the start menu under All Programs – Windows Live. Click
on ‘Windows Live Family Safety’ to start it and you will be presented with a
dialog like below.
Windows Live Family
Safety needs to be associated with a Windows Live ID. You’ll know if you have a
Live ID already if you sign into any other Microsoft services such as Live
Messenger (formerly known as MSN Messenger) or Hotmail. If you already do have
an account, sign in with this and it will be used as the Parental account where
you can control the access settings for your child.
If you don’t already
have an account, click on the ‘Sign up’ link at the bottom of the window and
you’ll be taken to a page to create a new account. Make sure to keep the sign
in information safe, as you’ll need it to adjust the settings for your child.
In particular, you’ll need to keep the Windows Live ID (which normally ends in
‘@hotmail.co.uk’ or ‘@live.co.uk’) and the password. Finally, you’ll need to
log into the window pictured above which should still be open
from before. After you’ve entered the details and clicked ‘Sign in’ you’ll be
presented with a screen like the one below.
Put a tick under
Monitor account next to all of the child accounts you created in the first step
and then press ‘Next’.
Windows Live Family
Safety Filter will then confirm that it is now monitoring the accounts in a
dialog like the one below.
The default settings
are very basic and allow the child to access to nearly all websites with the exception of
adult sites. You can customise
these settings to your liking by going to the ‘Family Safety’
website. There is a link to this at the bottom of the window pictured above. Alternatively, you can bookmark the url below for easy access to the settings and logs:
You will then be
presented with the family summary page (shown below), which lists all members
and has an ‘Edit settings’ link next to each to fine tune the settings for each
user.
You can adjust the web filtering settings to prevent access to more sites such
as Facebook, web chat and web mail sites. To do this, click the ‘Edit settings’ link then click the ‘Web filtering’
link. You will see a screen like the one below.
You can move the
slider up and down to the level you want. The boxes highlighted in blue are
what the filter is allowing and the boxes that aren’t highlighted in blue aren’t allowed.
This slider offers preset settings that can be further customised. Choose the one that is closest to what you want your child to be able to access. You can then further block or allow other sites using the 'Web filtering lists' button as seen in the above picture. There is a block list and an allow list. If a child is being blocked from accessing a certain site that you want them to be able to access, you should add the address of this site to the allow list. The opposite can be done with the block list.
Also on the Family Summary page you can click the ‘View activity report’ link. This page shows a list of all the websites that your child has visited. You can periodically check this list to see what websites your child has been looking at. If you see sites here that you don't approve of, you can easily block your child from seeing them again by using the ‘Change setting’ drop down box.
This article has
covered the basics of setting up Family Safety on your computer. Microsoft have an article that goes
into more detail of all the different settings. This article can be found here:
