keeping your kids safe online – windows live family safety and windows 7 parental controls

last month i gave a speech on keeping your kids safe online at cwug (chicago windows user group)– here’s some of the nuggets you missed at our november meeting.

first, i have embraced what is coming – we have two children that are growing up in the digital age.  they both have computers to use at the house, they both have starting playing video games (not online as of yet) and they are tech savvy.  because i have multiple computers and am the parent in charge of online safety, i am primarily using windows live family safety because it allows me to control and monitor my kids activities from anywhere (not just the computer they are using).

family safety report for my kids’ computers

here are some of the settings you can control in windows 7

all the way down to the programs your child can run

we’re also protecting our kids at home in other ways – we leverage parental controls on windows media center, xbox, televisions and on tivo to control what they can and can’t watch.

media center parental controls

blocked content from a dvd

tivo parental controls

xbox now has a family timer!

just protecting the computers, televisions, and game consoles my kids have access to isn’t nearly enough – talking with your kids about safety – at home, at school, when they are with friends or in public – is every parent’s job.