Parental control of a sort is built right into Windows 7 and Windows Vista. For each child you can set a weekly computer use schedule, control which games are permitted, and block specific programs. Windows Live Family Safety 2011 (free, direct) extends these features and adds the remaining components you'd expect in a full-scale parental control system. Note, though, that if you got yourself a new computer and gave the kids the old XP box, you can't use this edition of Family Safety, and the older XP-compatible edition lacks many significant features.
Family Safety is a component of Windows Live Essentials but it can be used independently if you don't want the whole package. As in Norton Online Family Premier ($49.99 direct, 4 stars) and Bsecure CloudCare 6.0 ($49.95 direct, 3 stars) all Family Safety configuration occurs online—from any Web browser—with a small client program that enforces rules on the computers the kids use.
As another full-scale free parental control product, Norton Online Family (Free, 4 stars) is the closest competitor to Family Safety. In this article, unless otherwise stated, I'll refer to features from the free edition of Norton Online Family, not the Premier edition.
Rocky Start
Installing just the Family Safety and Messenger modules from Windows Live Essentials was easy enough. However, on trying to launch Family Safety I got the error message "Access is denied: Error 80070005." According to Microsoft's help website this is caused by attempting to run the program under an account without Administrator privilege. I verified that was not the case; I was definitely using an Administrator account. Luckily the product ran correctly after a reboot.
Specifications
Type
Personal
Free
Yes
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
FAQs and forum.
More
On another computer I logged into the Family Safety website and defined a child account. As part of this process, I had to create a Windows Live ID for my imaginary child. I'm not entirely sure I approve of that requirement—does a toddler really need a Windows Live ID?
On the flip side, if a child under 13 attempts to create that Windows Live ID directly then the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires parental permission. Microsoft verifies parental permission using a small charge (50 cents) on the parent's credit card.
Back on the test system, I created a user account for my child. The product strongly recommends using Standard/Limited accounts for children. That's a reasonable requirement. The problems that caused many parents to just give the kids Administrator accounts under XP are effectively solved in Window 7 and Vista.
At first log-in, my brand-new user account didn't work correctly at all. The Start menu would only stay open for a few seconds, so launching any program was tough. Family Safety's program control correctly blocked Firefox, as I had configured it to do, but also blocked many other programs. It even blocked the program that provides its own visible user interface. Another reboot cured the problem, but it was definitely a rocky start.
A little experimentation showed that changes made online don't take effect right away. Family Safety checks the configuration once per hour or at login. Most products that offer remote configuration receive changes almost immediately—a much better result. Some, like Norton Online Family, also include an option to check for new settings on demand.
Content Filtering
Keeping the kids from accidentally or deliberately visiting inappropriate websites is a primary feature of most parental control systems. Net Nanny 6.5 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) (PCMag's Editors' Choice), Norton, and most others let parents pick and choose from specific categories to block. Many automatically pre-configure categories based on the child's age.
In Family Safety parents choose a filtering level rather than picking from dozens of specific categories. The toughest level prevents access to all sites except those explicitly added by parents. At the Child-friendly level kids can also visit sites that have been categorized and vetted as fine for kids. The General Interest level allows wider access to web sites "of general interest," and the Online Communication level also permits social networking, chat, and webmail.
For the oldest kids, the Warn on Adult level doesn't block anything but does give a warning before allowing access to adult sites. I used the Online Communications level for my testing.
When Family Safety blocks a site, it gives the child an option to request access by e-mail or by asking a nearby parent. The online management console includes a page for pending requests which lets the parent allow or block the site for this user or for all users. Parents can also transfer existing lists of blocked and allowed sites between users at any time.
As always I tried to find sites with offensive content that slipped past the filter. I was able to reach a few iffy ones, but nothing undeniably "adult" in nature. I verified that Family Safety forces Safe Search in Bing and Yahoo, but when I tried to visit Google I found it blocked by Family Safety. They're pulling for Bing, maybe? Microsoft said Google should not be blocked, but the only way I could use it was to define an exception for the site. K9 Web Protection 4.0 (Free, 3 stars) and Net Nanny take Safe Search protection to the next level by blocking access to search sites for which forced Safe Search isn't possible.
A child with a Standard account can't run the network command that disables some parental control systems. In any case, Family Safety is immune to this attack. A secure anonymizing proxy will still give the kids unlimited access. However, I had quite a hard time finding a secure anonymizing proxy site that wasn't itself blocked by Family Safety. The one I did locate gave me unfiltered access but went from unblocked to blocked overnight.
Both Norton Online Family and Family Safety allowed to me view some videos that I'd definitely consider inappropriate. That's not uncommon. Net Nanny's real time content analysis can filter out videos based on keywords, and Safe Eyes specifically includes filtering for videos but few other parental control systems have the ability to allow a site like YouTube while blocking specific videos. The Premier edition of Norton Online Family tracks videos watched on popular sites, which at least gives parents an eyeful of what the kids are watching.
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