Family Safety on Windows Vista

My name is Brian Trenbeath, a Program Manager on the Windows Vista team, and I would like to take a quick moment to tell you about the new set of Family Safety features coming with Windows Vista.

First, many thanks to the IE team for allowing me time on their blog to tell you about this exciting new feature area that is coming with Windows Vista!

Parental Controls on Windows Vista is a new, much anticipated part of the overall Microsoft Family Safety story. With Windows Vista, tools are now built into the operating system that will not only let parents apply limits to the way their children can use the computer, but additionally, tools that will let parents be able to keep better track of what their kids are doing on the computer.

So let’s dive in and see what Parental Controls on Windows Vista is all about!

The first thing you will notice, is we have created a centralized location in Vista where Parents can go to find all Family Safety related settings for their computer.

Here is where you will be able to find all of the settings for Windows parental controls settings. Additionally, this Family Safety section of the operating system extensible, which means that other software applications, can put their Parental Controls settings here as well. End result will be that parents won’t need to go looking in several places to find and configure these settings for their kids, they can just go to one spot and configure everything from there!

To use these settings, first a user account for the child is created. Then Parental Controls panel is used to turn on settings or monitor activities for that user.

One of the first things you’ll notice in this screen, after the large on/off toggle, is the second toggle for activity reporting.

As I mentioned before, one of the goals of Parental Controls is to give parents better tools to monitor their children’s computer usage. Being able to know what your child is doing on the computer is a critical part of that story. Once you choose to turn on activity reporting for the child, you can know, in detail, when they were on the computer, what programs they were running, what games they were playing, even what websites they have been visiting!

 

Then there are the restriction settings.  Windows Vista offers a range of ways that parents can limit how their child uses the computer.

• Time Limits – Parents can set limits as to when their child can use the computer
• Web Restrictions – Using an online service, a parent can restrict what types of web sites their child can visit. Use of this service comes free with Windows Vista. They can either do this by category (eg. My child cannot go to pornographic sites, or gambling sites), or they can get very specific and choose by URL, what sites are allowed and which are not. These restrictions will work automatically with any web browser.
• Game Restrictions – Partnering with Computer Game rating systems from around the world (like the ESRB in North America), we allow a parent to restrict the types of computer games that their child can play.
• Application Restrictions – If a parent chooses, they can apply limits such a their child can only run the applications that the parent has approved.

Technical information on how application can interact and utilize this new functionality is available latest Windows SDK on MSDN in the Windows Vista and WinFX Beta page.

We expect that we will be able to add more granularity and addition features into the Parental Controls feature set.

We hope, that with these features now built into Windows Vista, that we can make parents feel safer and more comfortable with what their kids are doing on their home computers.

 - Brian Trenbeath
   Program Manager
   Windows Vista

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  What a dirty little unhonorable thing to do to a person. I think these "controlls" are absolutly discusting. I like the idea of blocking web sites that my kids may "stumble apon"... yah right... however, to let the parents view reports on where there kids are going, what they are downloading and when they are logging on? That is no one but those childrens business. This is no different than spyware that monitors surfing habits in order to advertise. You discust me.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  I'm very happy that you are implementing this into Windows Vista. It is always important to set restrictions for children especially since many non-############ site have links or popups to ############ or questionable sites. This is a step in the right direction.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  I agree. I won't be moving to it because Windows is becoming overprotective and controlling. The audio/video/games/websites etc that I use will be in Microsoft's control. I'll be enjoying Ubuntu Linux with a side of Mac OS X Leopard on Intel.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  And responding to Bill... who are you to decide what is a parent's business or not? It is NOT your business to get involved in how a parent will raise THEIR child. This isn't disgusting, it's a feature that SOME people will use and others will NOT..

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  This is disturbing. Sure, ultimately using it or not is up to the individual. However, I can only pity the poor children who's parents will stoop so low to use these kinds of features.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Uhmm, parents already do "stoop so low" with programs from McAffee and Symantec. How is this any different?
  

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Let me put it this way.  With parental controls, I might be willing to consider letting my kids have access to the internet on their own computers.
  
  Without parental controls, there's no way in heck that I'm going to let them surf the web from any computer that's not in a public location.  It just ain't gonna happen.
  
  Bill, it's entirely possible that you don't care about what your kids find or who they meet on the internet.  
  
  I do, I've seen how easy it is to find some truly offensive material out there, and I don't want my kids exposed to it until they're emotionally ready to handle that material.
  

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  This is creating functionality for the home user that has existed for years in private and public companies and education institutions.  On those systems all of your network traffic is analyzed and all the sites you visit and the amount of time you spend browsing the internet or talking on IM is recorded, reviewed by HR, and filed away to be used later if needed (if policy states this is allowed).  One way they can use this information is to support firing you for non-performance.  All of this is perfectly legal because the company or education system owns the bandwidth you use and therefore you are subject to their policies.  For everyone that is disgusted by this new feature in Vista, do you submit to these logging policies at work or tell your manager you are disgusted by it and refuse to use a computer?  And those that say they own their own business, don't you want to ensure your employee's time and internet bandwidth you pay for is being used effectively?
  
  To those that don't like it, as stated in previous comments, just turn off the logging but don't say it is wrong for this feature to be in there when other users want the option.  
  
  Many features are included in all OSes that some users may never need or want, but that isn't a reason to not include it.  If we only had features that all users agreed on in an OS, we wouldn't even have browsers, instant messenger, or file sharing, because there is at least one user that doesn't use or agree with these features.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Thanks for the information. I am surprised by the complaints for adding a feature. If it was madentory, non optional, information sent to Microsoft and various governments, and it was the governments that put the conrols and restrictions I could understand a  negative recation. But an optional feature that provides users various features that have been requested, or at least the demannd has been seen as for years third parties have provided some of these fuctionalities, is amazing to me. I wirless router  I just set up at my parents place came with trial subscription of software to filter and protect kids.
  There are few of the fuctions I personaly would use with my own family, but I know others might. I think time limits are probally the only one I might use, if I found my kids using the computer when they should be sleeping... But I know other parents have different views and may find the other restrictions useful.
  Thanks for giving us options. The more options the better in all areas. We are all different and so options make a product more valuable to the masses :)

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Hello World!  I’m Sharon Cohen, Program Manager for parental controls in IE7. If you haven’t heard...

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  There's nothing wrong with giving these features. If Microsoft didn't, parents would seek the same features elsewhere. If you feel sorry for some kids that are getting restricted and monitored like this, then you have a problem with the parents, not with Microsoft. Personally I think that teenagers shouldn't need restrictions, but younger kids probably do.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Anyone who believes that a child should not have their freedoms restricted or monitored obviously doesn't have any children.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Will these settings and logs be available under the, err, vista equivalent of xp pro, from a remote machine, say a 2003 server?

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Doh! Those last three lines were bits of draft that didn't get deleted.

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Sorry, the last 3 lines of that were draft that didn't get deleted. Please ignore.
  

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  Good job on this idea.  I can't believe how people are over reacting to this optional feature.  I don't have kids now but I want to know where they are going and what they are spending time on.  If they have some myspace site where they are posting pictures they shouldn't or inviting trouble then I want to know.
  I agree with the person who posted that people who are over-reacting obviously don't have kids.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  As long as this feature works as designed, I think it's a great option to have available.  I have at least one idea of something to add to it.
  
  Firstly, though, to respond to Bill above, consider that in my case we're not talking about a 19-year-old at home from college for Spring Break, we're talking about a 7-year-old, who's interested in computers, but who, as Larry said above, I am not willing to set free on the Web.  I hope you're willing to admit that there's a difference.  I've been looking at other products already.  If something comes along in Windows, and it works, then it will make my life easier.
  
  Anyway, as to features: I've been looking into email services that can help prevent my daughter from getting the kind of spam I get.  A couple of products come close to what I'd like to see: SurfBuddies and KidSafeMail.com.  If MS implemented a mash-up of the best features of those two programs, and added that to the Vista Parental Controls, that would be <i>really</i> useful.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  PingBack from http://blog.23corner.com/2006/03/02/1324/

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  This is a great feature. Nobody is forcing you to use it, so I don't see the point of all these complaints.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  An important part that was not talked about at all in the post above, is what the experience is for the user that has Parental Controls applied to them.
  
  First, I'll point out that on Windows Vista, if you are an administrator on the machine, Parental Controls cannot be applied to your account. The entire feature set is premised on the assumption that if you are an administrator of a computer in a home environment, then you have the right to decide who can use that computer and how.
  
  It is also important to note that none of this is on by default. An administrator has to choose to turn it on and use it.
  
  So that said, by default, we will be providing an active notification to users who get Parental Controls applied to their accounts. And additionally,  users will always be able to go and see what restrictions or logging have been applied to their own account by going to the control panel. Parental Controls applied to an account on Vista will -never- be secret.
  
  As to the questions from Adam and Will about how the web filter is being implemented. Will surmised correctly, it is being done as an LSP. Unfortunatly, in the first version we will not be applying restrictions to HTTPS, but this is something we intend to enhance the feature with in the next revision.
  
  Thanks,
  -Brian Trenbeath
  Program Manager
  Windows Vista

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  @Fred Clown, well said!

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The explanation of time limits only says "when".
  
  Is it also possible to also/just limit the total time?
  
  If so, will that also work for administrator accounts?
  ---
  Looking at the blocked contents in the post: isn't favicon.ico only used for links in the favorites folder?
  

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  Adam,
  
  I actually worked on the MSN version of Parental Controls (as did Bruce Morgan who comments here occasionally).
  
  The problem with not putting the blocks in the network stack is that all the child has to do is, say, install Firefox and suddenly they can go wherever they want and no one will ever know. It completely defeats the purpose of Parental Controls unless it monitors network access on the system as a whole, not just in a single application. There is no point to a system that can be bypassed by someone putting a CD with Firefox or Opera or (insert browser here) and then being able to ignore it.
  
  Some parents don't want or care about Parental Controls but a lot of them do. I have a nearly ten year old daughter. She's not getting unsupervised access to the Internet without some system like this in place. The world is full of too many things that a nine year old child shouldn't be exposed to yet and also too many predators.
  
  - Al Billings [MSFT]

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  Adam,
  
  The parental controls can be applied to non-admin users. Most parents will set their child up as a limited user and tney won't necessarily habe the ability to install applications. That is up to the parent though.
  
  As to this needing to be in the application, it is a wide world and many people write apps. I don't think it is reasonable to expect every app to have to be parental controls aware in order for parental controls to work. This kind of tool belongs at the OS level where it can control the network stack.
  
  - Al Billings [MSFT]

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  It is fairly simple to sell the feature when is labeled "Parental Control". My concern is that this feature is not only available for parents. I'm a 30 years old man, and I'm certain that my parents will not be monitoring my internet activity. How ever, I have a wife who does not understand much about OS configuration. What's going to stop me from monitoring all of her internet activity without her knowing? Is that morally acceptable? If I walked into a library and use the computer, do I want the library admin to see everything that I was doing?
  
  I just hope that this feature is clearly displayed when activated. I would want to see a red flashing message saying that I'm being monitored.
  
  I would like to be able to set some restrictions, but I just don't think that spying on my kids is morally acceptable.
  
  It actually feels that I'm hiring a detective to follow my kid around town. It just does not sound right.
  
  
  

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  +1 to what Techno Guy said.  I have 2 daughters ages 10 and 6.  As someone who works in the software industry I have encourged them to be computer literate and they both use the Internet on a regular basis.  That said, there is no way in the world that I would want them accessing the Internet unsupervised.  
  
  Will I upgrade to Vista?  Will I use these features?  That will all depend on how they work and how many options they provide.  However, I simply cannot fathom the notion that I should not be monitoring (in some way) my children's access to the Internet.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  "Activity reports" is an unacceptable feature.
  It will become the employers' favourite feature to spy their workers.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  Will parental control (and activity reports) be available in Vista Business-versions or is it just for Vista Home-versions?
  

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The parental controls features are not going to be in business SKU's (except ultimate, which is a combined Home/Business SKU), nor server SKU's. They will be in starter edition, and all home SKU's, including Ultimate.
  
  -Brian Trenbeath

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  >>It will become the employers' favourite feature to spy their workers.
  
  Dude what world are you in?  Employers can already do that.  I work in an IT department.  All I have to do is take a look at the firewall logs.

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  You cannot believe how happy I am to see this implemented in Vista and/or IE7.
  Only someone that don't have kids will not appreciate this!
  One of the best things is the time control: my router don't give me much flexibility on this area, and it really is a good idea.
  
  Keep up the good work, guys!

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2006
  DAX: you say "I just don't think that spying on my kids is morally acceptable."
  
  Well, you have a choice: DON'T!  ;-) (duh...)
  

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2006
  I can see this as a tool for people to spy on their relatives. There wil be a lot of administrators setting parental control logging on their partners !!

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2006
  PingBack from http://ckunte.com/archives/2006/03/03/why-i-would-upgrade-to-vista/

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2006
  The fact remains that turning it on or not is optional. If you don't want to spy on your kids, leave it off. If you do, turn it on.
  
  However, remember this:
  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  
  If you have the power to do something then you'll probably do it anyway.

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2006
  Will >> Architecturally, I bet this is implemented as a Winsock Layered Service provider (or the Vista equivalent, using new interfaces also used by the firewall).
  
  Brian >> Will surmised correctly, it is being done as an LSP.
  
  Could anyone answer whether or not reinstalling tcp/ip stack, winsock, ect will also reimplement the previous created white/black lists? Because if I had to rebuild these custom lists everytime I need to do a fix I'd be rather annoyed.
  
  Will these controls also allow blocking of TLD, IP, or even web hosts? This would be useful to block unscrupulous material and if applicable as an email filtering.

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2006
  I'd expect the negative comments come from 1 of three sources honestly.
  
  1) A child that knows he's going to get the smackdown soon as vista hits.
  2) A predator that isn't looking forward to not having easy cruising of all the children.
  3) Someone who just wants to argue it to troll the comments.
  
  Personally, I'm looking forward to not only using it on my child, but also on myself. Can you say "block tribalfusion.com and all the other major ad hosts"? Imagine the total drop in ad spammed pages to view. Sadly, my router only allows for a limited number of domains to block so I still get the occasional ad.

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2006
  I think that when you login it should state that parental controls are active on you account.
  This feature is likely to be used not just with kids but with all family members and/or even employees or co-workers.
  It should not be a hidden feature when it is turned on.

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2006
  i dont know if it's been said before.. but when it comes to computers, since when do parents know best?  School admins are suspending children for simply visiting myspace.com.. because they hear it as a keyword in a negative context lately they freak out about it

• Anonymous
  March 07, 2006
  Excellent to see this new Windows capability! Used right, it will definitely be helpful for children.
  
  Regarding access to myspace.com ... that's a wild place. While many pages are harmless, many others are completely undesirable for children (and adults).

• Anonymous
  March 08, 2006
  I agree with Rantage's wise comments about still using questioning etc with children to monitor their use.  The best protection you can offer your children is to maintain an open relationship with them which fosters trust - their trust in you to allow them freedom to grow and express themselves, and your trust in them that they will be responsible and come to you should something upset them or freak them out.  
  The internet can be accessed on more than just a computer running windows (e.g. PSP, Linux live disk, a Mac(you know, one of those computers where nothing bad ever happens...), a computer at a friends house or net cafe (when was the last time you went into a net cafe and saw the owner monitoring childrens' use?). The only way you are going to know what your kids are up to is by talking to them.  Come down too hard, and you'll lose their trust, and they'll tell you nothing.
  
  However, Good on MS for developing these controls which parents will be able to choose to use.  Just because your swimming pool is next to the ocean, doesn't mean it shouldn't be fenced.

• Anonymous
  March 09, 2006
  If we use the phone as an analogy, I would agree that you would want to set restrictions on the places that your kids call. That does not necessarily mean that you should have the option ease drop or record all of their conversations. That just does not sound right!!!. I know I have the option of not doing it, but I still have the right to express my discomfort if a phone company starts offering this service to all of their customers, and just make it very easy for them to enable it. I would personally be concerned that my conversations are being recorded as well.
  
  It is always good to set some restriction for your children, and I think that the added feature of blocking some sites is a good idea. How ever I'm really opposed to the monitoring and logging features.
  

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2006
  "stoop so low"
  buddy, when i have kids I will stoop so low as to randomly pick a day when my kid sits in the corner and watches me take apart every inch of MY bedroom in MY house that I let let my kids live in. And for every thing I find, whether it be dirty socks under the bed or a cigarette taped under the bookshelf, they will be punished accordingly. The same goes for my computer. Children have the right to be in good health and protected from harm. Nothing more. If they can't have fun in plain view, they can't in private.

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2006
  ""The only way to be sure about this, to have it work as designed, is for the browser to block things.""
  
  If it were browser level it wouldn't work for me.
  
  I have NO INTENTION of ever running IE when I get vista. Sorry IE team, I have NO TRUST IN YOU. But I still want these parental controlls to work for me in alternative browsers.

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2006
  Wow - so much negativity. These tools will help any responsible parent to protect their children. However I agree that they will only form part of the overall package, at the end of the day we as parents cannot rely just on PC based tools we have a duty to educate our children to the rsiks and encourage an openness with children that encourages them to inform us of any possible issues that Internet access presents.
  
  I for one applaud MS in making these tools part of the OS - at last! I look forward to testing them out and hopefully replacing the commercial tools that we currently use and cause problems with IE.

• Anonymous
  March 14, 2006
  Good job. There are some real idiots on this blog. I like the new tools and agree with it. Keep up the good work guys

• Anonymous
  March 14, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2006
  Ok, after a month and a half working with Windows Vista I think here are my first impressions about this

• Anonymous
  April 23, 2007
  Smart SurveillanceNotes on Vista forensics Family Safety on Windows VistaReverse engineering with a VMRestoring the Vista Telnet ClientTracking users with Basic AuthSocial Engineering NotesAnti-debugger techniques are overratedWindows: protecting your

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