Parental controls in Windows XP & 7

Windows xp Parental Controls User Interface Changes.


You can disable the Windows Parental Controls notification or change the reminder frequency to Weekly, using these steps:

• Click Start, Control Panel, click User Accounts
• Click Family Safety, click Set up parental controls for any user
• In the Tasks pane on the left, click Family Safety Options
• Select Never to turn off Parental Controls notification (or)
• Select Weekly to be reminded to read the activity reports once in a week.

Windows 7 Parental Controls User Interface Changes.

Elements new to Windows 7 Parental controls top-level screen can be seen on the following screen shot:

Figure 1 Windows 7 Parental Controls screen

1. The Additional controls section allows users to select a provider for additional controls such as web filtering, activity reporting, online contact management, etc. When a third-party controls provider’s installed on the computer, the screen displays the Select a provider drop down box that shows the currently selected (active) provider. A description of the provider’s functionality, as supplied by the provider, is shown below the drop down.
2. When the user account is selected by clicking user’s name or picture, the provider configuration for the user is launched. The provider can take over the default configuration UI for the in-box offline restrictions.  Optionally, provider generated status strings for user accounts are displayed under user account pictures.
3. An Icon supplied by provider is shown in the upper right corner of the screen.

Additional control providers can still rely on the default’s (system) provider UI for the configuration of in-box offline restrictions. If a provider chooses to do so, the User Controls screen can be presented to configure a user’s Parental Controls settings.

If an additional provider is selected and configured, the following new user interface elements are shown on the Windows 7 User Controls screen:

Figure 2 Windows 7 User Controls screen. Additional controls provider is installed and configured.

1. More Settings allows direct access to the currently selected provider’s functionality.
2. Web Restrictions allows access to the currently selected provider’s functionality.

Windows Parental Controls settings and Vista to Windows 7 upgrade

If a Windows Vista PC which has parentally managed user accounts with enabled web filtering restrictions is upgraded to Windows 7, parents (administrators) are warned during the upgrade as well as when opening the Windows 7 Parental Controls screen, that web filtering and activity reporting functionality is not part of Windows 7 Parental Controls.

 

Figure 3 Windows 7 Parental Controls screen. Some users have web filtering restrictions. No additional provider is installed.

Windows Vista Parental Controls settings (including web filtering and activity logs information) are preserved unchanged when upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Although web filtering settings and activity logs information are not used by Windows 7 Parental controls, their preservation allows third-party provider to honor these settings.

As you start using Windows 7, we hope these changes to Parental Controls capabilities will make you feel more confident and in control of how your family members are using computers and experiencing the web.

Content Advisor in Internet Explorer

The Content Advisor in Internet Explorer is one way to protect your family's online safety. That is if you use Internet Explorer to go on the internet of course. Most other browsers offer their own mechanism to deal with internet safety.

To enable the content advisor in Internet Explorer ...

• click on the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options"
• In the Internet Options dialog, click on the "Content" tab and then click the "Enable" button

 

That opens up the Content Advisor properties window :

In this window, click each category and use the slider to set the desired level.

You will also notice the "Approved Sites" tab. It allows you to add sites manually and specify if you want the site to be always blocked or always allowed.

The "General" tab lets you specify if websites without rating system should be blocked or not. You can also set a supervisor password and find rating systems in the "General" tab. Choose a secure password, write it down and store it in a safe place.

You will need this password whenever someone needs access to restricted content and whenever you need to change or disable the Content Advisor.

In addition to the Content Advisor in Internet Explorer you can also set parental controls in Windows XP in ...

Windows Media Player

If your computer has a DVD drive, you can play a DVD by putting it in the drive and choosing "Play" in Windows Media Player. To implement parental controls on DVDs played on the computer, select "Tools" -> "Options" in Windows Media Player and click the DVD tab.

You will see a check box to enable parental controls and a rating drop-down list to specify the rating to apply.

Instant messaging

Chatting on the internet is immensely popular. Exciting and fun, but not without danger. Parents often don't have the faintest idea about what is going on in chatrooms.

On the internet everybody can pretend to be anyone. Young kids don't always realize that. They don't know that there are people out there with phony identities, completed with fake pictures, fake hobbies and fake favorite snacks.

You can learn how to protect your children from these individuals in our instant messenger monitor article. (The link takes you to another page. At the bottom of that page you will find a link that brings you back here. I'll wait here.)

Back already ? Ok.

Apart from parental controls in Windows XP, nothing can replace common sense when it comes to protecting yourself and your family on the internet.

Here are a few additional recommendations :

• Install your home computer in the living room, where you can walk by from time to time. Try not to make your teenager feel like you are spying on him / her though.
• Try to show some interest in what your child is doing on the internet. Talk about the fun stuff, so that they know that it's o.k. to talk about it.
• Make sure they understand not to send their name or address over the internet to someone they have never seen in real life.
• You can find a lot of "free" stuff on the internet. Often you only need to provide your email address to get the goodies. Consider opening a separate hotmail account, used for internet sites. That makes it a lot harder for spammers to abuse your private email address.
• Use a nickname or only a first name for chat or instant messaging.
• Don't enter phone information in a chat profile.

Special tip :

We have to admit it : MSN Messenger is fun. Everyone with youngsters in the house knows that instant messaging programs are extremely popular. But nowadays more and more bright teenagers are exploring the web in a new, promising way.

They build their own website. Not just a website (everyone else already does that), but aSiteSell website.

SiteSell sites are different.

Why ? Because they work. More than once they have proven to enjoy more popularity than many existing bigger commercial or official sites in their domain.

SiteSell was founded by Ken Evoy, M.D. who has developed a deadly efficient all-in-one system to create content-rich websites that stand apart by their heavily-stressed hit counters.

Today the market is flooded with dummy-proof systems to create personal and hobby websites, but 99% of them are only collecting e-dust because no-one ever knows they exist.

SiteSell is the only company that proves that it can be done differently and a growing number of bright young people know it.

A SiteSell website isn't free, but in most cases it pays itself back (and more) after one year. The possibilities and techniques to generate income from a website are also covered in the excellent documentation.

Everything that your teenagers need to make their friends jealous with their new extra income is included in the package.

The only disadvantage to the system is ...

... some people have a hard time believing that it can be so simple to learn these valuable, in-demand skills for such a reasonable price.

Nevertheless, that shouldn't restrain you from trying it, because the product is covered with a risk-free 30-day money-back trial.