Windows Vista: Parental Controls

An overlooked feature of Vista

Friday, January 26, 2007 by Island Dog | Discussion: Windows Vista

Windows Vista is almost here, and there are some features that I am happy to see included.  Along with all the cool stuff like Ultimate Extras, and Aero, is something that is a little more important to me.  This is something included in Vista that I think isn't talked about enough, and that's the Parental Controls feature.

Anyone with children will tell you monitoring their child's internet activity is vital, and I can't agree enough.  My kids are at the age where they need to access the internet to do research for homework, projects, etc., and I have tried many types of software to monitor or limit their activity.  I haven't found one that I am extremely pleased with, so I welcomed an integrated parental control tool inside Vista.

With that being said, I wanted to take a small tour through the Parental Control tool, and give you my impressions as a parent.  In my case I will assign a user account that the kids use, and my administrator account is protected by password. 

Configuration

Configuring the parental controls is done through the Control Panel, under "User Accounts and Family Safety".  From there you can select which user accounts to apply the parental control settings to.

              

 I turned the parental controls on, and made sure activity reporting was turned on as well.  I will go into the activity reporting a little later.  From the User Control window I can also configure the web filter, time limits, games, and allow/block specific programs. 

Starting with the web restrictions, I will set it to medium, and block file downloads
You are given the option to add custom restrictions based on the type of content you wish to block, but I want to see how effective the default settings are.


Another cool feature of the parental controls is the ability to allow or block the time kids are able to use the computer.  I set the filter to only allow access from 9am to 8pm. 

The next step is the Games section.  Here you can choose to allow the selected account to play any games at all, or set allowed/blocked game ratings, or you can select or allow specific games installed on Windows Vista. 

The final setting is Application Restrictions.  From here you can allow the account to use all programs, or just the programs you allow.  I enabled this and only allowed a few programs the kids can run.  These few are Firefox, Windows Photo Gallery, and Webshots
You cannot block a program like Internet Explorer from running. 

Testing

Now comes the "fun" part, putting the controls to the test.  Rebooting to Vista brings me to the welcome screen where I can choose between my account and the kids.  Move the mouse over the "Kids" account, click, and nothing.  It gives me a nice message telling me the parent controls have blocked access to the PC.  Remember I set the controls to block access
after 9pm.  After removing the time blocks it's time to test the games and program access controls.

I set the controls to only allow the users to play only certain games which I selected.  Trying to startup the game gives a small popup informing the user that parental controls have blocked the game from starting.  The same goes for the programs access.  I only allowed the kids to have access to a few programs, and any others that weren't "authorized" were also blocked.  Very nice to prevent them from doing such things as chatting online, or using programs that aren't meant for them.




Web restrictions is the one I have been waiting for, and now it's time to see how effective it is.  I fired up IE7 and went to Google, and typed in various search terms with a range from sexual in nature to violent, and it blocked just about every "creative" term I could think of.  I had also compiled a list of........lets say "questionable" websites to test, and the parental controls blocked every one.  I also wanted to make note these restrictions worked on both IE7 and Firefox.

My next task was to see if I could easily get around the controls.  My first search was for "bikini" which was immediately blocked, but using the words "bikini islands" allowed the search.  The sites which were about the Bikini Islands I was able to view with no problems, and sites which featured images of "bikinis" were blocked.  It also blocked a few sites which used pictures of the islands, but did not interfere much with my research.

For the next hour or two, I proceeded to visit many sites of questionable content, various searches using a variety of terms, and just general web browsing to get a wide scope of how the parental controls in Vista would handle normal and not so normal use.


Summary

I have used many applications designed to block and control the content on a designated PC, both freeware and shareware, and I have to say the parental controls built into Windows Vista impressed me the most.  They were very easy and straightforward to setup, and were very effective at blocking web content.  The parental controls blocked most of the content that parents would find "questionable", and there were very few times where I could get around the filtering. 

The ability to limit access to the PC was also welcomed, but I would like to see the same function used to restricted web usage only.  Someone might need to stay up a little late to finish a homework assignment, and I would like them to have access to the PC, but just not to the internet.  I also liked the ability to allow only assigned games and programs  to be used.  Chatting online is something I do not want my kids doing, and Vista makes it simple to prevent that from happening. 

One of the best features is the ability to view an "activity report" of the account that is under parental control.  This report gives a wide range of detailed information about what the users on the controlled account were doing.  It will list the sites visited, the sites that were blocked, what applications were used, what files were downloaded, and much more. 

                 

Overall, I can give the parental controls in Vista a big thumbs up.  Is it perfect....no, but it does offer good protection out of the box, and I think it will be a solution that will satisfy many parents.  Take notice that the parental controls will not keep your child completely safe online, and nobody should rely on software alone for their child's online safety. 

 

greywar
Reply #1 Friday, January 26, 2007 4:47 PM
Good article and I especially liked the last sentence.
ZubaZ
Reply #2 Friday, January 26, 2007 5:21 PM
Thanks ID.  One more reason to upgrade.
PurrBall
Reply #3 Friday, January 26, 2007 5:54 PM
Might actually be useful for myself. I am the only person in this house, but if something comes up that I don't want to see, or if I want to only allow some apps to help keep me more secure, then that is definitely a good reason to use it.
Dr Guy
Reply #4 Friday, January 26, 2007 6:16 PM
Not bad. But as my son (about 10 at the time) showed me, there is no substition for parental oversight! This will make it harder for them (thankfully mine are beyond the stage), but they are growing up with computers, and we had to learn them in our adult life (at least for me).
brassblaster
Reply #5 Saturday, January 27, 2007 1:45 AM

This article is very informative and well written. I, too, have tried many different programs aimed at keeping my kids safe online, agreeing, of course, that nothing beats keeping my wife and I actively involved in their activities. What I really liked was the activity report. It just makes me all the more interested in Vista than I was before.
Well done, Island Dog.   
EyeGuy
Reply #6 Saturday, January 27, 2007 3:20 AM
All this parental protection all works well against children before their teenage years, but after that, it all starts to become obsolete. In our family, we've got a box running a vista beta, with my parents over my shoulder trying to set up parental control. After giving them a speech about how useless it all was, I rebooted the computer in safe mode, logged into the admin safe account, proceeded to de-activate the parental controls, re-booted again and downloaded a few files (they'd restricted file downloads). Unfortunately, kids of the age who want to go looking for "inappropriate" material, have the computer knowledge to go right past it.
Island Dog
Reply #7 Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:06 AM
Unfortunately, kids of the age who want to go looking for "inappropriate" material, have the computer knowledge to go right past it.


You are right, thats why the last line of my article was important. 
sleepydawg
Reply #8 Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:04 PM
Good report Island Dog. Thanks
NYBronxer02
Reply #9 Monday, January 29, 2007 12:47 PM


lol it reminds me of me when my brother put up zone alarm pro to block stuff for me, and trust me i was pissed off so i went deeply inside the root of the computer and deleted all the core files of zone alarm pro and it worked like a charm i was like 12 or so i think, When theirs a will theirs a way. lol watch u gonna be seeing hacking tips for going around the controls on nickelodeon forums and cartoon network i can see it already
Island Dog
Reply #10 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:23 AM

The images were broken, updated today. 

 

Jarrin
Reply #11 Tuesday, April 1, 2008 5:13 PM
No. I don't like windows parental controls. I'm a kid. I'm not a bad teen, even though common stereotype says I am. Parental controls ARE NOT very good. I'm home alone by myself for the most part, so parental controls aren't good, at least not for me. Like I said, Mom's common stereo type assumes their teen child will look at inappropriate images. I care a little to deeply about my future for that. Right now, I'm focused on school. I'll focus on relationships later on in my life. Either way, the parental controls are way to sensitive. My mom only has the check for "no naked pictures" done, and it doesn't let me watch multiple you tube episodes, blocks nearly every advertisement, all pop ups (assuming they are nudity) even when I have the pop up blocker disabled. Not to mention (and not to brag) I'm a computer wiz. I know exactly what I'm doing, and most of the time the things I do related to the computer are in order to fix it. As a stay at home child, I occasionally will need to get the password. But this doesn't work for me. I have fixed our Vista computer multiple times, but I've always had to wait about four hours for some one to get home. Not to mention, a lot of the web sites I visit (I'm also a nerd, into a lot of games etc) it blocks web sites that I KNOW are completely legit and do not contain nudity. This can be very frustrating, because multiple web sites I go onto are blocked, even though I have been to them frequently. You're best bet is to keep it simple. Don't make assumptions. Know. Probably find a nice key logger, etc, just to see what's going on. Or something that just monitors you're internet browser, being Mozilla or IE. The time limits are the other thing. Just today, I was trying to get onto the computer to try to get advice on how to fix my phone (a HTC Mogul PPC 6800) which apparently has a lot of glitches, which I've worked through. Well, guess what kept me from fixing it for another hour. Time Limits. There is an ENORMOUS FLAW WITHIN THE TIME LIMITS. You can't just set it so I only get four hours a day or six, it has to be within the specific time. My mom thinks it takes me like two hours to do my homework now, which is completely not true. I only have to spend maybe a half an hour on it, and when I am doing my home work, I like to listen to music. With my phone broken I can't listen to it from that, and with me locked off the computer I can't get anything out of that either. The Parental controls are only more then annoying for me, don't stereo type your kid. That's probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Do you really think a 10 year old is going to go to a pornographic web site? Use your brain. Limiting a kid's use of a computer isn't always bad, if you know your own kid. Which you should, by the way. There are other BIG flaws. One of my "favorite" flaws is the thing that when your computer doesn't recognize a file, it makes an administrator put in his/her password. Not bad right? WRONG You have to put it in every single time, even if you know and trust the file. There's no check mark that says "Always allow." My mom told me to try and fix the file on my account, and she put in her password multiple times for me. I couldn't fix it. I had full control and administrative power over this game, and since the computer didn't recognize it and even after the password had been put in over 100+ times, it still made the password needed. Another is it can't just time limit specific programs and web sites, which is a big issue with me! I can't listen to music or check my email real quick. Anything I can do on the computer I can practically do on my phone anyway, so if you're going to implement parental controls at least use your brain enough to disable the internet on your child's phone. A lot of the times it doesn't even let me look at my e-mails anyway with out getting a password. Don't just assume that I'm trying to get parental controls disabled or something. You really think one kid that has a problem with the controls is going to make a difference? If anything, some guy from Microsoft is going to look at this and go "DANG! That kids got some good ideas" Anyway, if your kids a braniac and a computer wiz or plays any games or something, I don't really recommend parental controls. They'll really get him angry.
ZubaZ
Reply #12 Tuesday, April 1, 2008 6:16 PM
Good post . . needs page breaks.
Philly0381
Reply #13 Tuesday, April 1, 2008 6:34 PM
Parents and their children have always had one thing between them, and nothing is going to change that. Parental control. We have all experienced it, believe it or not. Yes, even us old folks were kids once.  

It's not only that the parents don't want something bad happening to their children, it's their responsiblilty to make sure, as best they can, that it doesn't happen. In everyones else's eyes when something happens to a child the very first question is always, "where were their parents?".

There's a saying that sometimes covers this situation. Goes somthing like, "The older my parents get, the smarter they are."  

Oh, and parental control was here long before computers.   
its_someone_in_particular
Reply #14 Tuesday, April 1, 2008 9:33 PM
Meh. Im a kid to. When I got a new Vista Laptop, my uncle loaded the thing with parental controls for everything. I just went to ctrl panel, went to change my account type, told my uncle that 'He needed to do the UAC thing so I could chnage my Psswd'
He entered it and hit ok. I changed myself to admin, disabled Parent Controls and delted his account. Just for being able to do that, he trusted me that I would be able to use the computer good enough, and he didnt put them back on (:

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