With Family Safety, Windows 8
provides four options for controlling how your children (or anyone) can
use the computer. These are as follows:
- Windows Web Filters: Specify the type of content that your child is allowed to view.
- Time Limits: Specify the hours during each day that the child can use the computer.
- Windows Store and Game Restrictions:
Specify whether the child can access the Windows 8 Store and if they
can play games on the computer. You can also set the rating and content
types that are allowed.
- App Restrictions: Select which apps and programs the child can run.
1. Getting to the Family Safety page
Fortunately, you don’t need to be a
computer guru to set up parental controls in Family Safety. After
you’ve set up appropriate user accounts, the rest is easy. Here are the
steps:
1. Log into Windows with a user account that has administrative privileges.
2. Do whichever of the following is most convenient for you at the moment:
- At the Windows Start screen, press Windows+W. Type fam in the search box, click Settings, and click Family Safety.
- At the Windows desktop, press Windows+X, and choose Control Panel,
click User Accounts And Family Safety, and then click Family Safety.
3. A page appears that shows the name and picture for each user account you’ve created, as in the example in Figure 1. Click the user account for which you want to set up parental controls.
Now you’re in the parental controls page shown in Figure 2. Any options you choose are applied to the account shown in the page. For example, in Figure 2, we’re setting up Family Safety options for a user named Wesley.
To activate Family Safety for the
account, choose On, Enforce Current Settings under the Family Safety
heading. After you turn on these parental controls, you can choose
which controls to apply for the selected user.
