7. Viewing Family Safety Online Reports
A feature available with the Windows 8
Family Safety tool is access to an online Family Safety website. This
website includes additional reports about Family Safety settings and
allows you to modify Family Safety settings. To access the Family
Safety online site, use the following steps:
1. Click the Family Safety website link on the User Activities page. Internet Explorer launches.
2. If
prompted, enter your Windows Live sign in credentials, which you need
to have to use the online Family Safety features. If you do not have a
Windows Live account, click the Sign Up button on the left side of the
screen and follow the onscreen instructions. If you logged into Windows
8 using a Microsoft account, you can use those credentials as your
Windows Live username and password.
3. Once at the Activity Reporting website (as shown in Figure 15),
use the links on the left side of the page to view Family Safety
activities and features. Most of these links mirror those found on the
Family Safety pages that we already covered. However, if you click the
Request link, you will see those pages that a user has requested to
view. Click one of the links to visit that site and to determine if you
want to unblock its access. Figure 16 shows a list of requested websites to unblock.
4. Select an
option from the Response drop-down list, such as Allow For This Account
Only, to specify the type of access you want to give, if any.
5. Click Save to save any changes to settings you might make.
The changes you make online will copy
down to your local version of Family Safety. The next time you open the
User Settings page for a user, your online changes should be reflected.
You can view these online reports and options for
any user at any time as long as you have Internet access. This comes in
handy if you are away from your home computer and you want to view your
child’s online activity and see if any requested sites have been added
to the Requests page.
When you sign onto Family Safety online,
Microsoft starts sending you e-mails with tips, additional information
about Family Safety, and a link to the Family Safety website. You can
opt out of the e-mails by clicking the Change Email Frequency link on
the top of the Microsoft Family Safety e-mail. This connects you to the
Family Safety website, on which change the frequency in the Email
Notifications area. You might, however, want to keep these
notifications turned on until you become more familiar with Family
Safety.
