What can Windows Vista Parental Controls do?

Windows Vista was designed to help parents keep their children safe when they use the web and protect them from it's more unsavoury elements. As a parent, your concerned that your children will accidentally stumble across material that isn't suitable for them. To help parents look after their kids online, features already built into Vista include:

Windows Vista Web Filter

Allows you to set up rules which determine which websites the computer can access when your kids sign in using their username. By restricting the sites your computers' web browser can go to, your children are protected against malicious websites which try to lure kids through the promise of free games and ads specifically designed to lure children to inappropriate sites.

Time Limits

By restricting the times at which your children can use the computer you can be sure that you are always with your kids when they are online. By guiding them through the websites they use you can help them learn how to surf the web carefully and avoid common traps. We explain how to use this feature in-depth later in this article.

Games

Every parent knows that kids love their games, but sometimes some games are simply not suitable for children of certain age groups. The games feature of parental controls allows you to set appropriate games classifications for each of your children so that they are not exposed to content unsuitable for their age group. Alternatively, you can allow or block the specific games you currently have installed on the family computer.

Allow only certain programs

This is a little more complex to set up, but by allowing your children to use only the programs you have made sure are appropriate (for example Word, Power point and a few games), you can protect them from predators using Instant messaging and other connected programs which would not be suitable for different age groups (for example some programs used by for an older teenager would not be suitable for a younger sibling).

Activity Reports

The majority of children who are exposed to inappropriate material online don't tell their parents about it as they found the experience disturbing. By knowing what your children have been exposed to you can address the issues that arise and help them learn how to avoid recurrences in the future.

Setting up parental controls

To help parents navigate the different options available to them, gizmo offers a Kids Safe Online service which gives you the professional service you need to understand how you can best protect your kids online. To book a Kids Safe Online service call 1300 275 449 or visit www.gizmo.com.au

Using Time Limits in Windows Vista

Parental Control in Windows Vista allow you to easily set up time limits for computer usage so that you can control the hours of the week which your children can and cannot use the computer. This allows you to set up your computer so it can only be used at times when you will be at home to help guide your children on the best way to use the internet at home.

In this step-by-step guide, we show you how you can easily set up time restrictions on your children’s computer usage.

Click on Start > Control Panel then under User Accounts and Family Safety click on Set up parental controls for any user

Parental controls work by giving each user of the computer their own user account. By default, your current account will be an Administrator account and all the accounts Children have will be Standard Accounts. This allows you to give different children different hours they can use the computer so there are no fights.

The first thing you will need to do is create a user account for your child, in this case, we’re going to set up one for ‘Little Johnny’. To do this, click on Create a new user account link.

Enter your child’s name and press Create account. They will use this to login to the computer. If your own administrator account doesn’t yet have a password on it, you will be prompted to enter one. Without a password on your account, there is no reason that your children will not simply be able to login as you and use the computer that way. If asked, press Yes to enter a password.

You are not given the option to set up how Little Johnny will use the computer. First, turn Parental Controls On, then click on Time limits.

Clicking on Time limits will bring up a grid which represents the different hours of the day. By default, Little Johnny can use the computer at any time, so to limit his access, simply click the squares you want to block and they will turn blue. In this example, we have blocked Little Johnny from using the computer after 8pm at night and before school starts on weekdays. Once you’re done, click OK.

Click OK to close the Parental Controls window.

Now to test it out, log out of Windows by clicking on Start > Right Arrow (>) > Switch User and then clicking on Little Johnny’s account. If it is currently a time when you have blocked usage, then Little Johnny should see a message which says “Your account has time restrictions that prevent you from logging on at this time. Please try again later.”