Control And Monitor Your Child's Activities With Parental Controls

The Parental Controls in Windows Vista lets you easily control what your child can or cannot do, and monitor his/her activites using the built-in reports.

Step 1: Create A User Account For Your Child
Parental controls work by placing restrictions on a user account. Creating an account for your child so you can apply controls to his/her account without restricting yours:
1. Click on the Start Button and select Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove User Accounts under the User Accounts and Family Safety area.
3. Select Create a New Account.
4. Create an account for your child and ensure that Standard user button is selected.
5. The new account will now appear in the User Accounts window.

Step 2: Setting Up Parental Controls
Next, enable parental controls for the account you just created:
1. Click on the Start Button and select Control Panel.
2. Under the User Accounts and Family Safety option, click Set Up Parental Controls.
3. Select your child's user account to set up the controls.
4. Clicking the On radio button to enable parental controls.


Step 3: Configuring The Options
Configure the options to control what your child can and cannot do:

a) Windows Web Filter
1. Click the Windows Vista Web Filter option.
2. Check that blocking is enabled (turned on by default).
3. Edit the Allow or block list and enter the websites that are accessible to your child.
4. Click the "Only allow Web sites which are on the allow list" check box.

Block Web Content Automatically
You can apply automatic restrictions for your child here - a High or Medium level works best. Click on the radio buttons for a summary of what is blocked. If you'd opted to allow only websites that are on the Allow list above, this entire section is unavailable because site access is completely controlled by the Allow list.

Block File Downloads
This control restricts your child from downloading files from the Internet. For younger children, this is a good setting to enable because it prevents the possible download of information you may not want to them to have.

b) Time Limits
Selecting this option brings up a calendar where you can control when your child is allowed to use the computer. Simply click and drag to turn the desired hours and days blue in order to block these times.

c) Games Your Child Play
Select the Games option in the Parental Controls window to allow or disallow game playing by setting game ratings and allowing/blocking specific games on the computer.

d) Programs
You can allow or block specific programs on your computer, i.e. you have programs installed that you do not want your child to use. Choose this option in parental controls, and then click the radio button that appears to allow your child to only access programs that you have selected. You'll see a listing of all the programs installed on your computer - check the boxes of the programs that are accessible by your child.

Step 3: View Your Child's Activities
If you open parental controls for your child's account, you'll find an option to view his/her activities. This feature lets you review what your child's activites on the Internet, system changes that have been made, applications used, games played, e-mails that have been sent/received, instant messaging activities and many more. Click the report option, then use the categories on the left side of the window to see your child's activity.