Windows 8 User Accounts and Family Safety – Family Safety

How to Launch It

• Open the traditional Control Panel through the Start Screen or using the Run Windows command “control”.
• Select “Category” view for Control Panel.
• Select “User Accounts and Family Safety” category. This opens a new page containing the subcategories.
• Select “Family Safety”. This will launch the applet on the same control panel page.

Family Safety filters work on a user account. Select a user account on which you want to apply the filters, and turn on the filter. This applet provides you the following settings.

Activity Log

You can log activities of the user account. That way, you will come to know what your children do while using PC. To view the log, click on “View activity reports” link as shown in the above image. The log shows following activities.

• The websites the user visits most frequently
• The blocked pages that the user has tried to access
• The time duration in which PC was used each day
• The apps that the user has used most frequently used.

Web Filtering

This part of the applet lets you customize the content, which the user can access on the internet. There are two types of web filters.

• Web filtering level – Here, you can specify a restriction level which a website has to pass through in order to be accessible. A restriction level allows only certain type of content and sufficiently rated websites. All other web content is blocked for the user.

You can also block file downloads here so that only web surfing is allowed.

• Specific websites – Here, you can create an explicit list of websites that are either allowed or blocked. The websites not in the allowed list will be inaccessible. Conversely, the websites not in the blocked list will be accessible.

I think an allowed list would be easier to create for a child, given the amount of content available on internet!

Time Limits

This part of the applet allows you to specify the number of hours that a child can use PC on each day of week. Also, you can specify at what time he/she is allowed to use the PC.

• Set time allowance – With this setting, you can set the number of hours per day of week.

• Set curfew – You can set the timings during which PC can be used through the user account.

Windows Store and Game Restrictions

This part is crucial to set for children. Computer games are so addictive that the children could keep playing them whole day. So, it is important to set restrictions on games. You can allow or block games in two ways.

• Based on game content and ratings – This is a generic filter which a game has to pass in order to be accessible.

• Specific games – If you don’t rely on a restriction level, you can create a list of games that are allowed to be played. Conversely, you can create a list that is not allowed to be accessed.

App restrictions

This section of the applet controls what applications will be accessible through this account. For example, you may block all the games and media players during the exam times of children. This section contains a list the applications installed on your PC. In case a certain application is not detected by Windows, you can manually add it to the list. To apply restriction on apps, simply select those apps from the list that the account user can use. The rest of the apps will be blocked from the user.]]>