I've had several people ask me about the parental controls in Vista, so I thought I'd pass along some information. This month's issue of Computer Shopper covers other products that are available for Windows XP.
The parental controls in Vista are very effective and very useful. They do not replace parental involvement, but they do help when you cannot be in the same room with your child while they use the Internet or the computer. Of course, the easiest way to control that is to prevent it all together and not allow them to use the computer, but that is a bit extreme. They will, naturally, find a way to use one more than if you let them, but place limits on use. This is surprisingly effective. Windows Vista allows you set these limits easily enough.
Diving In
The first thing you need to do is create a STANDARD user account for the child. You can do so by going to the control panel and selecting USER ACCOUNTS AND FAMILY SAFETY. Next, create a new user, fill in the name and make sure STANDARD USER is selected. Next, you are presented with a dialog box containing icons of the available users. Select the user you just created and then click the SETUP PARENTAL CONTROLS link under the Additional Things That You Can Do section. Another dialog box will popup containing the parental controls options. The first thing I did was set time limits. This is important, especially during the school year, as you can tell Windows just how long your child can use the computer. So, click the TIME LIMITS link. You will be presented with a grid. The grid is a laid out in days of week and hours in the day format. Simply click in the boxes that corresponds to the times that you DO NOT want your child to use the computer. The blocks will turn blue, indicating that that block of time is off limits. For my son, who is ten, I have the computer log him off at 9pm and not allow login until after 6am, Sunday night through Friday morning. On Friday and Saturday, I am more lenient with the times.
Web Limits
You can also set limits on browser usage. This requires Internet Explorer 7 and higher or the latest version of Firefox. Earlier versions of both browser do not recognize the controls and, thus, can circumvent this. Also, opera and Safari do not work with the controls. You add the browsers that are non-compliant to the program limits. Web Limits can be as loose or tight as you like. Microsoft maintains a list of 'bad' sites and will prevent your child from surfing to these site. Conversely, you can choose to only allow a certain site or sites. There is a list that you can maintain and the browser will only allow the child to visit these sites. Also, the language filter works very, very well. I've seen it prevent my son from going to certain forums that looked innocent, but were, in fact, full of foul language. It also appears to prevent him from visiting forums where certain words-not foul language-used in certain ways to allude or describe drug use or other more adult subjects. I have been very impressed by the filters. I feel much more at ease with him visiting his favorite forums and message boards. I have also locked out instant messaging. I don't trust it and won't allow it until he is older. I also preview new places he wants to go before I will allow it.
Game Limits
There is also a game limit section. This will allow you to prevent Windows from running games that are a certain rating or higher. It also allows you to prevent games that might f it your rating, but contain subject matter you do not wish your child from seeing. An example of this might some games like Street Fighter, which has a teen rating but is very violent. Or games like Grand Theft Auto. You have many, many choices.
Miscellaneous
Parental controls can log everything your child does. It is pretty thorough and shows things like how long they are logged in, what programs they run, what web sites they visit, games they play, how they played the games and more. If your child tries to do something they are not supposed to do, Vista's vaunted User Access Control dialog pops up. The child can then get you and you can decide to allow or disallow the action. Warning: the child cannot install anything without your approval. Why did I say Warning? Simple...anytime they get a game or a program, you must install it as they will not have permission. I suspect most people will just install it anyway, but I'm sure there will be times that you forget and then junior will be coming back to get you. The UAC message will also pop up if they try to go to a web site that has been deemed questionable. Sometimes, it does prevent some legit sites like NickJr. I have to figure that one out, but there was something that the filter did not like.
All in all, Microsoft did a great job with Vista's parental controls. If your child has a computer that can run Vista, I highly recommend installing Vista and setting up the parental controls. I have found very, very few games that will not work with Vista, so don't believe all the anti-Vista 'news' you may have seen. The one game that flat out will not work that we have is Maxis' Sim-Theme Park. However, it would not work correctly under XP either. You have to jump through hoops to make it work and then it was unstable. Parental Controls alone make Vista worth the upgrade. Of course, your child may argue that.
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