To Windows Vista's activity reporting, however, Windows Live Family Safety lacks theĪbility to monitor webcam and audio usage, game play, file exchanges, SMS messages, Sites visited, instant-message conversations, and e-mails received and sent. When this feature is enabled, your children's Web- and Internet-related activity is recordedĪnd presented to you periodically in report form. If you're really worried about the Web, you can block all Web Now, you can only allow orīlock specific sites. But that's not how it works in Family Safety. In Windows Vista, you could actuallyĬhoose to block vast swathes of objectionable subject matter such as adultĬontent, Web mail, social networking sites, anonymizer sites, and other types of What kind of Web content you'd like to block. Custom: If you choose the Custom restriction level, you can determine exactly.Basic: Family Safety blocks adult content only.Sites that Microsoft has created as well as whichever sites you've manually configured. Strict: Family Safety blocks all Web sites except for a list of child-friendly Web.You can choose which sites your children see using simple settings such as the following: Using the Windows Live Family Safety Web filtering option, parentsĬan configure which types of Web sites their children can visit using a number of contentĬategories that are specified on a per-child basis. This is a bit onerous,īut once you've got all that configured, you can get up and running with Family Safety'sĬore functionality: Web filtering, activity reporting, and contact management. To access the Family Safety Web site, click the link "Go to the Family Safety website."įrom this Web site, you need to create a Windows Live ID for each child you will be protectingĪnd then associate those IDs with your own Windows Live ID. The latest family controls from the Web site. Safety is enabled on that computer and provides a little refresh button for manually getting The Windows application shown above simply determines whether Family The easiest way to find this application is to type family in Start Menu Search.Īs a Windows Live service, you actually do most Family Safety features configurationįrom the Web. If Family Safety is installed, you can access its functionality via the Parental ControlsĬontrol panel or via the standalone Family Safety Filter application.
Install it now by visiting the suite's Web page at. If you do not yet have Windows Live Essentials, please Tip Windows Live Family Safety is installed as part of Windows Live Essentials. Take a look at each feature of Windows Live Family Safety in the following sections. As such, it's best used on PCs that are shared between parents and children. Of Web, e-mail, and instant messaging protections aimed at keeping your children safe
To Windows XP and extends the parental controls that are native to Windows 7 with a variety Windows Live Family Safety is a cloud-based service that offers parental controls Extending Parental Controls with Windows Live Family Safety