These features may not be enough for all parents, however. Windows Live Family Safety 2011 expands the controls to include web filtering and activity reporting, among other things.

Installation & Setup

To obtain Family Safety 2011 you need to visit the Windows Live Essentials website and download the package. This package contains a wealth of software, but you can choose to only install the Family Safety features if you’d like.

Once installed, you’ll be prompted with a screen that lets you choose which accounts you’d like to monitor. As you can see above, I’ve chosen my example “Child’s Account” for monitoring. In addition to this, Windows will recommend that you disable guest accounts, since they can be used by anyone as a means to bypass account monitoring. Alternatively, you can add a password to the guest account.

Now Family Safety is active, and the accounts you specified during setup have been given some default settings, as shown above.

Web Filtering & Contact Management

Although the Family Safety software must be installed on the PC you’d like to monitor, the settings are adjusted via a web interface made available online through the Windows Live website. There are two specific categories of settings that are now available which aren’t included in the standard Parental Controls.

Web Filtering is the first, and provides a way to automatically prevent your child from accessing certain websites while using his or her account. There are five default settings that can be utilized, ranging from extremely restrictive (only websites you approve can be accessed) to completely open (all websites can be accessed). It’s also possible to block specific websites based on their URL.

The other category, Contact Management, makes it possible to control your child’s contacts when they’re using a Windows Live ID. For example, you could make it impossible for him or her to chat online with anyone you have not approved.

Requests

Although Web Filtering works to prevent your child from seeing unapproved sites, it doesn’t prevent them from entering the URL. Doing so brings up a request page instead of the actual website. Your child can use this page to request access to a specific site.

For example, I limited my Child’s Account to allow Child-Friendly content only. When logged into the Child’s Account, attempting to access a new site like CNN results in the notification below.

Any requests made will show up in the web interface, where they can be approved or denied.

Activity Reporting

Perhaps the most powerful feature of Windows Live Family Safety 2011 is activity reporting. This does what it states. Using the web interface, it’s possible for a parent to see what is happening on a child account.

This includes the websites that are visited, including when they’re accessed, as well as important computer activity such as when the account is logged in and the programs that are used. In the case of web activity, all sites are reported even if they are blocked, and those that are blocked can be approved.

Although the standard Parental Controls allows for parents to proactively stop children from using certain software or accessing a computer at certain times, Activity Monitoring makes it possible to make sure the rules aren’t being stretched. The fact that the interface is web based is also a boon, since it’s possible for a parent to keep tabs on a child’s account even at work or on the road.

Conclusion

Windows Live Family Safety is an impressive software suite, particularly when the low price of free is considered. Although there are other paid solutions available, the default Parental Controls combined with the advanced Family Safety features should provide everything a parent needs to keep tabs on their child’s computer use.

This might encourage a parent to police a child’s use constantly, but this is tiring for both parent and child. A better alternative is to use parental control software capable of locking access to certain software. Windows has these controls built in, and they’re easy to learn.

Giving Your Child An Account

Windows uses accounts as a means of restricting user access to certain parts of the operating system. This function has more to do with security than it does parental controls. By restricting the access of people who don’t have administrative privileges it’s more difficult for hackers to take over a Windows machine.

However, the accounts system is also well suited for parental controls. When you access the Parental Controls menu in the Windows control panel you’ll be presented with a list of users. You may have already created an account specifically for your child, but if not, find the “Create a new user account” link at the bottom of the list and click it.

You’ll then be asked to put in a name for the account, and you can also require that the account input a password when it is first used. I don’t recommend this with younger children, as they’ll likely forget, but teens should be able to remember the password.

Once you’ve created the account you’ll be sent back to the Parental Controls menu. Now you have an account that can be used by your child.

Defining The Rules

Now that your child’s account appears in Parental Controls, click on it to access the account’s settings. By default, the controls will be turned off. Simply click the On radio button to activate them.

Now you’ll have access to three different rules: time limits, games, and allow and block specific programs.

Time limits are not used to limit the amount of time the account can be used but rather when the account can be used. Access to the account is not allowed during the blocked time periods, and the account will be logged off if active in those time periods.

Games lets you decide if an account can be used to play games, and decide what games your child can play based on the rating of the game. It’s also possible to block specific titles. While these are excellent controls, keep in mind that ratings are only a guideline. What one parent finds acceptable may be intolerable for another.

The final control makes it possible to define the specific programs you’d like your child to have access to. If you want to block web access, this is an easy way to do so (by blocking all web browsers). It’s also possible to block potentially damaging software. For example, I wouldn’t want a mischievous teen to have access to TrueCrypt.

Advanced Controls

Near the bottom of the Parental Controls menu you’ll find a section labeled Advanced Controls. This is where you’ll be able to make changes to advanced tools like web filtering.

These advanced controls are not installed by default, however. You’ll have to install some other software to access them. Microsoft itself offers a free program called Windows Live Family Safety that can be easily acquired as part of Windows Live Essentials.

Conclusion

The built-in parental controls found in Windows are a great boon for every parent. Monitoring a child’s usage of a PC can be tiresome, and at times not feasible. By learning to use the controls above you can protect your child even when you’re not present.  Let us know what you think about them in the comments.  Is Parental Controls in Windows effective?

With the age of cyber savvy kids on the rise, internet safety is just as important a part of education. Parents can play a prime role as educators.

But then, there are loads of resources which can play the role of motivators. A class on internet safety need not be dull and drag when you have interactive games like these six to take you through the concepts.

Webonauts Internet Academy

This cool online game teaches kids all about the rules of web safety and digital citizenship. Taking on the role of ‘webonauts’, children have to complete a series of missions in order to graduate from the Webonauts Internet Academy. The lessons follow the motto – Observe, Respect, and Contribute. Right from picking up a uniform to the planetary excursions, the online game is interactive but it requires a fair bit of patience. The game teaches child must-dos like keeping passwords secure or how to build web profiles. The PBS Kids website is a must stop for both children and also parents as educators.

Safety Land

The game is courtesy AT&T. It’s all about battling a villain who is spamming people with messages. The goal is to rid the town of this evil character and make it safe again. As Captain Broadband, you can seek out the villain from a few locations around town, answer a few quiz questions, garner points, and banish the bad guy forever. If you succeed, you become a certifiable hero. Press play.

Internet Safety Hangman

This is a case of the classic Hangman game reincarnated as an internet safety educational game. The game follow the same rules, except now the clues all relate to cyber rules you should remember rand follow. You have to guess the answers to the questions and feed it in to complete the game.

Iggey and Rasper’s Internet Safety Game

The Kids.com Jr. internet safety game for kids is a series of questions on net etiquette for kids. The questions are like an instructional quiz that serves to teach the main points on internet safety.

Anti-Phishing Phil

This game is a limited version game of the actual one but the game play is enough to educate someone about phishing on the internet. It is also a game that’s meant for older kids and even adults. As Phil, a young fish living in the bay, you have to earn points by eating the good worms (good URLs) and refusing the bad worms (phishing URLs). Your mentor is the PhishGuru who helps you identify the good from the bad. It’s a cool site that can help anyone avoid online phishing scams. The actual full game has four rounds while this limited version has only one, but it gives you a general idea on phishing scams.

OnGuard Online

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States uses this site to impart education on internet safety. A lineup of 13 quiz games will allow you to test yourself on everything from spyware detection to wireless security. Not all games are on security as some also test your awareness on online investing and auctions. But it’s definitely about cyber-smartness.

If you are looking for a free downloadable game to learn about cyber-safety, Carnegie Mellon’s Carnegie Cadets: The MySecureCyberspace Game teaches you all about cyber defense and how to protect yourself with four missions on how to spot spam, how to keep personal information safe, and how to identify Web threats. It’s a 173 MB download (available for both PC and Mac).

When it comes to parental controls and keeping your kids safe, education is the first course. Have you tried to educate your children on the manners for safe browsing and internet safety? Which course have you followed?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Even though parents understand the risk, many don’t understand the technology enough to install or enable the appropriate filters. A lot of people use parental control software, like the 5 that Varun previously covered, or other programs like FamilyShield or Visikid, which Tim covered.

The only problem with most of the existing techniques or applications is that they require a fair level of knowledge and computer ability to configure and get running properly. However, if you are like the many parents out there that would simply like to block a few specific sites you know about that you absolutely don’t want your kids visiting, then a program like Any Weblock may be perfect for you.

Setting Up Any Weblock

Any Weblock is one of the simplest applications to use, which is why I recommend it for parents that are not at all computer-savvy. Setup is a very brief three step process – install and configure, add the websites to blog, and then activate your changes. The first step is pretty straightforward. The first time you run the installed application, it will ask you what you want to set up as the administrator password.

Make sure this is something your kids, or whoever you’re trying to block content from, cannot easily guess. Obviously, using your name or simple passwords that you use all the time is not a good idea. The next step of configuration involves setting up the websites that you’d like to block. Now, if you want to bring in existing blacklists, just click on the “Import” button.

Adding Websites To The Filter

On the import screen you can bring in XML list files that you exported from your other computer (making it easy to use one list across multiple PCs), or you can click on the external link and visit the AnyUtils website for external blacklists, such as Shalla’s blacklist, which has over 1.4 million entries.

Keep in mind that this many entries may hamper performance on some systems, so if you find that you can’t access any website after enabling such a long list, just click on the “Roll back” button to set things back to before you applied the filter and then try a few lists. If you have specific sites that you want to block, such as certain popular social networking sites that make kids lose track of time and not do their homework, you can do so by clicking the green “Add” button.

In its simplest form, you just type in the domain of the site you want to block in its entirety and click OK. That’s all there is to it. No DNS configuration, no control panel searching and no hacking skills required.

Once you click on “Apply changes“, you won’t be able to access the websites that you’ve added to your blacklist. This isn’t one of those applications that only works with IE. Once you add a domain to your blacklist, no browser will be able to access the website. If you try, you’ll see the following error.

The software is also flexible enough so that you can block subdomains without actually blocking an entire domain. This work swell for websites like Blogspot, because there are many websites hosted on the blogspot.com domain, but you may only want to actually block one or two of them. With the ability to block only subdomains, you can do that.

Visiting BlogSpot.com, you’ll see that you can access the main domain just fine. If you attempt to visit any of the subdomain websites you’ve banned, up comes the “Unable to connect” error.

Other Features

There are a few other cool features of this software. For example, as I mentioned briefly earlier, you can export your entire blacklist to any directory on the network or onto another computer. To do this, just select the export button at the top of the main screen.

The blacklist (or block list) file is exported as an XML file. Any other PC with Any Weblock installed can import this XML file, which makes it very easy to use matching blocklists on all of your family PCs.

Once Weblock is installed on a particular PC, the next time you (or one of your kids) tries to run it, they will encounter a password entry window. The only way to get into the software to configure or disable it is to type in this password – so when you set it up initially, don’t lose it!

Weblock is one of the fastest and easiest ways to initiate a website ban list for every web browser on a PC without the need for complicated configurations or tweaking every browser. Just install, create your banlist, and you’re off!

Image credit: Armin Hanisch

WinGuard Pro offers to simplify a lot of these tasks by providing a number of such functions bundled together in a tiny little utility.

You can download the WinGuard Pro computer security and access control software here. The download size is under 1 MB and the software installs in a snap. It does however require you to restart your computer. Once you log back in, you can access WinGuard Pro and its features.

The main user interface for WinGuard Pro is the configuration tool. The tool is locked on first run and the default password is “LETMEIN“. Key it in to get access to WinGuard Pro’s feature set. Let’s review some of the features and have a look at what WinGuard Pro offers.

Once you log into the Configuration tool, you are presented with a tabbed interface that gives you access to WinGuard Pro’s features.

Lock down programs or tasks

WinGuard Pro lets you lock down specific programs, folders or tasks via the Tasks tab. Just place a check against the application/feature or folder that you want to lock down and WinGuard Pro will prevent the standard user from accessing the program/feature or the folder.

Now whenever Notepad is accessed, the user will have to enter a password before he/she can use it. There are a number of options available that you can lock via a simple check within this tab. The options range from the command prompt, System Restore, etc. with security in mind; to Windows Media Player, Messenger with parental controls in mind.

File and Folder Encryption

WinGuard Pro also lets you encrypt and decrypt files and folders according to your choice. Be warned that this might not be the solution you are looking for if you want to encrypt an entire partition or a USB drive. Truecrypt is your best bet in that case. However, if you want to encrypt a folder or two without getting obsessed with encryption and all the plethora of options that accompany any decent encryption software, WinGuard Pro lets you do that.

Just browse for the folder you want to encrypt, choose a folder and you are done. To read files, click the Decrypt button, browse to the folder and key in your password!

Prevent selected actions on the computer

Next up, lets have a look at the More tab. In here, you can lock down actions like file download and software installation along with certain Windows features like Task Manager and Windows Explorer. You can also go a step beyond and lock down all browsers if you so please.

In addition, there are other options that can help you streamline how WinGuard Pro functions and behaves. You can for instance, exclude the Administrator account from all the access control features. That is you will be able to log in as the administrator and do all your chores as if WinGuard Pro never existed. All other accounts except the Administrator account are treated as the Standard user accounts. You can also deploy the same configuration to different computers by using the Import/Export functionality.

On the whole, WinGuard Pro is a feature-rich, no fuss and functional software for access control. On the down side, it’s not free from issues. The UI could be improved a lot. As an example, consider this – what do you expect to see when you want to browse for a folder that you want to encrypt? A browse button perhaps? In here, you would have to click on the label to get the browse dialog. Everything detailed above is available in the free version of the software. You can also purchase a premium version of the software that gives you finer control over application lock down and folder encryption. The premium version is also available as a 60-day trial.

What are you favorite access control software for Windows? Let us hear about them in comments.

We, at MakeUseOf.com haven’t shortchanged them at all. From apps for kids to specific posts that cover fun sites, search engines, games, or inspiration, we try to do our bit. Because, more than the child, it’s also the parent who is searching for a safe corner on the web for unadulterated kiddie fun.

Video websites for kids is a popular search term on the web. Just as adults have the best of television and the online world when it comes to video, so should our kids. It’s just that there content needs to be more strictly moderated and should blend in subjects that are for kids-eyes-only.

So here are ten online video streaming websites for kids that are closest to a responsible parent’s heart, and of course the kid’s.

Kideos

Kideos.com and its collection of videos for kids cover their entertainment till age 10. In fact, you or your child can select videos by age. Then there are the child friendly channels like Harry Potter, Farm Animals, Space, Cute Animals, etc. to pick a video to watch from. Most of the videos are hosted on YouTube. Each video gets screened for appropriateness before it features on the online video site. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad, then there’s a free app available for download too.

Kideo Player

Kideo Player is YouTube website for kids. It is also probably has the most kid friendly way to view videos. It’s similar to a playlist of selected videos which the kids can go through with a press of the spacebar. The most popular ones are those which have the least spacebar skips. You can press “˜F’ for full screen view of the videos. The idea is to keep things super simple for the youngest among your kids.

KidMango

Kid Mango is a popular online destination for children’s videos – from preschool up to the age of 12. The site is run by GenMouse Inc. who host a bunch of kid-safe websites. Unfortunately, the videos are not available for my country (India). The KidMango Library has popular shows from some of the world’s best producers of animation and live action. It showcases over two thousand videos covering everything from Einstein to aliens and vampires to Leonardo da Vinci.

Kids Tube

KidsTube.com aims to join the lineup of child-friendly and family friendly video sites. Here, kids can also upload their own videos and socially network with other members. Children can also start their own micro-blogs. The arrangement of videos is like most video portals. The unique thing is that Kids Tube also runs a lot of contests around user uploaded videos. For instance, weekly contests around a theme. It’s a great outlet for perking up your child’s imagination.

Kidz Bop

Kidz Bop is a carefully moderated, child-friendly website for kids where they can make and upload their own webshows and videos, play games and get creative with music and art. On the free children’s website, you can create a series of episodes into your own webshow. If not a complete webshow, you can upload short videos. Your uploaded videos can also be turned into a contest for others to vote and enjoy.

National Geographic

National Geographic has a whole channel website dedicated to kids. From funny animal videos to videos that take you to wondrous places, the videos are excellent for education and fun. The free children’s website comes with the quality that’s the hallmark of National Geographic.

Discovery Kids – Beyond

Just like National Geographic’s offering for kids, Discovery Channel also has one of its own. A mix of education and fun, the lineup of videos is a reflection of what Discovery Kids shows on TV. The clips are kept short enough for attention spans of the little ones.

ZuiTube

ZuiTube is brought to you by the guys who developed KidZui, the free browser for kids. ZuiTube is a children’s website filled to the brim with videos that are approved by parents and teachers. Most of the videos are sourced from YouTube. It also advertises itself as the largest online collection of children’s videos.

Kidyos

Covering fun activities like videos, games, and music, Kidyos is worth a look if you have a child who is between 1 and 6 years of age. The site screens its collection from YouTube but also provides a few language options like German, French, Spanish, and Hebrew apart from English.

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is the online children’s website of the Public Broadcasting Service (U.S). What you get are lots of little videos on the characters from the shows that the channel broadcasts. You can Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dot’s Story Factory, Sesame Street, Curious George, and other shows on the children’s website.

Dedicated children’s video websites are not overflowing on the web unlike their adult counterparts. YouTube of course, hosts a lot of videos but YouTube is a soup of all kinds of videos, most of which might be inappropriate for young eyes. Drop a comment if you have a video website for children that you would like the kiddie world to know about.

Image credit: Wayan Vota

Today I will be showing you a free spy software download put out by the same people who brought you the McGruff crime dog from the 1980′s. Do you remember him? He had the slogan “Help us take a bite out of crime!”

Well he is back and he is spying on your kids Internet activity. He can email you if your child does something that trips the alarm. These things can be a stranger “friending” them in an online social network. It could be them or one of their online buddies using “dangerous” acronyms like LSD or PCP.

To start we will need to create an account.

After creating a “parent” account using the form above we can move on to install the free spy software download on the computer your little one uses. We need to select the types of alarms you want installed. They include: bullying (being bullied or your child being the bully), sexual terminology, curse words, alcohol and drug talk, loneliness or suicide watch words, violence and strangers talking to them. You can see the full list below:

Now we need to physically install the software. Don’t worry if you are not in front of their PC. You can click No to the following question and have the link emailed to you so that you can install it on their machine. If you are on their machine click yes and continue.

Go ahead and click OK on the next screen to install.

It will take a few minutes for the software to check your built in firewall and security software for compatibility. They might give you recommendations on how to deal with them. For me I was good to go.

Select the first option and then point it to the account we created at the beginning.

When you are finished hit next. That will take you to this screen telling you that a McGruff icon will appear on the child’s computer. If you click on the button labeled why it will tell you how important it is to talk to your children about Internet safety but there will also be a button to remove the icon from there, for the sneakier of MakeUseOf readers.

Now you can view how many unique websites have been looked at on this machine. You also have the option to view the websites browsed to, prior to the installation, by hitting the show details button. You can see what mine looks like below:

The next check box will not allow your children to view inappropriate websites.  I skipped this step as I want her to have free range but also be able to see what choices she is making. This will help me guide her in understanding the World Wide Web.

Next up we see the notification screen. This is where you can set up how you want your snooping data statistics delivered. You can have it emailed to you or view it online (or both). You can also be alerted instantly via email to “dangerous browsing activity”.

Here is a quick glimpse of my control panel and how much data it actually aggregates and gives you access to.

How do you keep your little ones safe online? Do you always watch them while they use the computer? How young is too young to be left alone online?

Group policy is the magic behind Active Directory. Group policies are rules that either allow or deny – well pretty much anything on a machine. As a network administrator I get to use group policy to push out rules and regulations to my networked computers. These rules can tell the machine what applications are allowed to run, or in this case what sites are “trusted” in Internet Explorer.

Today I will show you how to add trusted sites to Internet Explorer using the group policy, without ever visiting the actual desktops. If you are new to group policy don’t worry, I will make this as easy and pain free as possible. If you do not know what the benefits of group policy are, let me give you an example. I have 278 computers on my network. I can either walk to each of them manually and add a trusted site list or I can push it out to all of them in one quick swoop.

Adding Trusted Sites to Internet Explorer Using Group Policy

For those of you who already know group policy I am sure you can just take a look at the screenshots below to find what you need.

You can open your Active Directory users and computers’ control panel by navigating to it on your Start menu by going to Program Files ““> Administrative Tools ““> Active Directory Users and Computers.

That will open a console that looks something like this:

If you want the policy to apply to your entire domain, right click at the top of the console. The domain is specified by three computers. If you want to apply the policy to another group or organizational unit right click on that instead. I will be using the organizational unit called editors. Choose properties from the context menu and then you will see the screen below:

Click on the Group Policy tab and then click the Open button. This will take us into the wonderful world of group policy. This is called the group policy management tool. The organizational unit will already be highlighted. Right click on it and choose Create And Link A GPO Here.

That will take us to the place where we can name the policy. Name it something that will make it easily identifiable. I chose AddTrustedSites for mine. Then click OK.

You have just created your policy. Now we need to define the settings that we want to trickle down to our clients. Locate your policy in the right pane and right click on it. Choose Edit to get started.

Now we need to drill down to the settings that we want to set. We need to go to the Computer Configuration ““> Administrative Tools ““> Windows Components ““> Internet Explorer ““> Internet Control Panel ““> Security Page and then double click to the zone assignment list in the right pane as you can see below.

After you double click on site to the zone assignment list you will see a window to enable the settings and configure it. Click enabled. Then click show. On the show contents screen click add.

By clicking add we can add URLs and specify what zone we want them to be placed in like so:

The number 2 denotes the number of the zone. In this case it is the trusted zone. Microsoft breaks down the settings as follows:

1. Intranet zone – sites on your local network.
2. Trusted Sites zone – sites that have been added to your trusted sites.
3. Internet zone – sites that are on the Internet.
4. Restricted Sites zone – sites that have been specifically added to your restricted sites.

After clicking OK you can wait for your default refresh of Group Policy which is 15 minutes by default or you can run gpupdate.exe from any workstation to see if it worked. You can also restart the workstations to force the update.

Do you have another method of achieving this? Let us know in the comments.