As a parent, teacher, or librarian, you’ll want to use parental
controls to help keep young people safe when they are on the Internet and
to prevent them from accessing types of content they shouldn’t be
accessing. Parental controls enable you to manage three broad categories
of Windows settings:- Time restrictions
Control the times when a user can use the computer by blocking
or allowing specific hours of the day.
- Game restrictions
Control whether a user can play games and the types of games
this person can play.
- Application restrictions
Control the types of applications a user can run while using
the computer.
When parental controls are turned on, you can also collect
information about computer usage, and select a game rating system.
1. Turning On Parental Controls
You can set parental controls for standard user accounts
on the local computer only. You cannot set parental controls for
administrators, and you cannot set parental controls for computers
configured to use domain user accounts (typically used in large
organizations or companies). Any user designated as an administrator on
the local computer can configure parental controls and view activity
reports for users subject to parental controls.
You can turn on parental controls by completing the following
steps:
Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family
Safety→Parental Controls.
On the “Choose a user and set up Parental Controls” page,
shown in Figure 1, you’ll see
a list of all users on the computer and a summary of their current
account configuration. Any account that has parental controls turned
on is listed as such.
All Administrator accounts on your computer should have a
password to prevent your kids or other people with standard user
accounts from bypassing or turning off parental controls. If there
are Administrator accounts on your computer that have no password,
you’ll see a warning on the “Choose a user and set up Parental
Controls” page.
To clear the password warning, if displayed, click the warning
text to display the Ensure Administrator Passwords page shown in
Figure 2. On this
page, the “Force all administrator accounts to set a password at
logon” checkbox is selected by default. To force all users with an
administrator account to set a password the next time they log on,
accept this setting and click OK.
Click the account for which you want to turn on parental
controls.
On the “Set up how…will use the computer” page, shown in Figure 3, click “On, enforce
current settings” under Parental Controls to turn on parental
controls.
Click OK to apply these settings and then configure the
Windows settings to control, as discussed in the sections that
follow. Be sure to select a game rating system as
appropriate.
2. Selecting a Game Rating System
Game rating systems, such as those used by the
Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), are meant to help protect
young people from specific types of mature content in computer games and
on the Internet. You can learn more about the available rating systems
and select a default rating system to use by completing these
steps:
Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family
Safety→Parental Controls.
In the left panel of the main Parental Controls page, click
“Game Rating Systems.”
On the “Game Rating Systems” page, shown in Figure 4, you can review the game
rating systems available. The default rating system used depends on
the country or region settings for your computer.
If you want to change the default rating system, click the
rating system you want to use. Beneath each option, you’ll find a
link to the home page for the game rating organization. If you have
questions about a rating system, click this link to open the home
page in Internet Explorer. You can then read about the organization
and the related rating system.
Click OK to apply your changes and go back to the Parental
Controls page in the Control Panel.
