Parental Controls should be used to restrict access to Windows Vista, selected applications and the Internet for children that either share the computer with their parents or have their own computer. It is in my opinion very important to give your children a restricted user account instead of letting them use an administrative account or your own account. Parental Controls make it possible to add time limits for the usage, block or allow certain applications, allow only games that are suitable for the age of your children and use a filter for the Internet.

The first step would be to create a new account for each of your children if you have not done so. you can do this directly in the Parental Controls menu which is accessible in the control panel of Microsoft Windows Vista. You can turn on Parental Controls in the next step and decide if you want an activity report which logs the usage of the computer by this account. Last but not least you can control the settings for Internet, Time, Games and Programs. Let us take a look at all four options.

Activate Internet Filter in Windows Vista:

You have the option to block certain websites and content or allow all content. It does not make much sense to allow everything which means that you should leave this option at the default value. A very restricted feature would be to only allow websites that you have entered to a list. This would be a method called whitelist surfing. Your children would only be able to open websites that are in that list. All other websites would not be shown.

You might know such a feature from your company. Some companies only allow restricted Internet access and disallow certain websites like myspace for instance. A very strict company would also use a whitelist instead of blocking only certain websites.

The Block Web Content Automatically section allows you to select a automatic access level for your children. Typically the high or medium settings are best suited. You could however edit the custom settings to select content like drugs, gambling and hate speech from appearing on your childrens web browser. Please note that you should not trust those settings completely. Some sites will fall into a blocked category although they are harmless and some dangerous sites will slip through the filter. It is however better to use this filter than to not use a filter at all.

Last but not least it is possible to disable file downloads which is probably a good idea to prevent that dangerous files make its way to the computer. This is also good to restrict P2P networks and possible law violations.

The conclusion is that only a whitelist approach makes sure that your children will only visit sites that you known (because you added them to the list). I would suggest this setting or be present when your children are surfing in the Internet to react and talk to them when something “disturbing” appears on the screen.

Control time limits:

When you activate this feature you see a calendar that is showing seven weekdays and all hours. You may then block certain hours and days which has the effect that it is not possible to log into the computer at the time specified. This is important to restrict access when children would be able to access the computer without supervision.

I think that this is another interesting approach. Instead of filtering the Internet you specify exact time frames where your children may access the computer. You can then supervise the internet usage.

Control games your child can play:

Another important feature in the Parental Controls in Windows Vista. You select if the user may play games you may choose to define that the user may play games with a certain rating only. It is recommended to block games that have no rating and all games that have a rating that is above the age of your child.

I think that it is still important to take a look at the games that your child is playing and play them yourself to get a understanding of the game.

Allow or block specific programs:

Select if the user may use all programs on the computer or only programs that have been selected before. I would definitely opt for the second option and allow only programs that have been added to the list.

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