Younger people, including minors, are increasingly interested in technology and tend to spend many hours in front of PC screens, tablets, smartphones and consoles. Microsoft Family Safety it is a parental control solution which, albeit with some limitations that we have already had the opportunity to examine, allows you to place limits on the use of various electronic devices.
The Microsoft Family Safety service offers a number of features that help you to monitor e manage the use of devices and applications by members of the same family.
The idea is to provide a safe environment e protected for minors using digital devices, but Family Safety can also be used to monitor how adults use devices.
The main features of Microsoft Family Safety
Among the most useful and interesting features integrated into the parental control from Microsoft there are the following:
- Control device usage: Family Safety allows you to monitor family members’ device usage, including time spent on each device, applications used and activities performed online.
- Control over access to applications: The service allows you to block access to certain applications and games that may be inappropriate for children. You can set time limits for using certain applications and games.
- Monitoring of online activities: Microsoft’s parental controls provide a handy online activity monitoring feature that allows you to check the websites you visit and the searches you make on your devices. It is possible to block access to certain sites (or types of them) and set time limits for network use.
- Position control: A tool like Family Safety offers a location tracking feature that allows you to determine where a device is, in real time. It is even possible to set “zone limits” to ensure that minors do not move from certain places, considered safe.
- Expense control: Finally, Family Safety facilitates the control of any expenses made on the devices, for example purchases made on the main online stores. It is possible to block any type of purchase or set spending limits (while still receiving a warning whenever a purchase attempt is made).
How to use Microsoft Family Safety
To use Family Safety, you need to create a Microsoft account and invite family members. Each family member can have their own personal account and parents can manage its security settings. The service is available on Windows, Xbox, Android e iOS: this means that, through the same interface, those entitled can place limitations on a wide range of devices.
Through the official website of the instrument or in any case by referring to the main ones store online (Microsoft Store, Google Play Store, Apple App Store), it is possible to download and install a single application that allows you to manage the device both on the user side who “subjects” the limitations, and on the administrator side (the person who decides how, for how long and at what times the use of each device is permitted).
Once one or more family members are invited, the administrator (who Microsoft calls “family organizer“) can log in to this page with your Microsoft account and then adjust the settings for each user.
Using the tabs at the top of the screen, you can define limitations both in terms of authorized and unauthorized applications, games and websites, and in terms of time.
Set time limits
If your children spend too much time in front of a screen console Xbox or tend to use excessively the other electronic devices you have at home, it may be time to set time limits. This is not a punishment: the little ones must learn to manage time that they have at their disposal and not to abuse the devices granted to them.
Setting time limits takes place in the Web version of the Family Safety application by defining times and deadlines on the appropriate page. As you can see, it is possible not only to set a number of hours and minutes per day for possible use of the device, but also to indicate the times in which use is permitted.
The same interventions can also be applied via an app, which can be installed for example on a smartphone or tablet. After startup, simply select the name of the minor or user who must be restricted and then add and/or select the devices of interest. In the example, as you can see, you can select the Xbox console and then indicate the times of use (time limit and available times).
With a tap or click Lock device, the family organizer still has the possibility of temporarily interrupting the possibility of using one or more devices. The user will receive a warning that the device has been forcibly blocked.
The opening image is taken from the Microsoft site.