Protect your kids online by using Windows Vista

jjones | Guides | 27/01/2007 13:48pm
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Your kids want to use your PC. You want your kids to use your PC. But mixing sticky young fingers and inquisitive minds with cutting-edge consumer electronics can be like a school science experiment – the one where you mix baking powder with vinegar in a sealed container. Not tried it recently? Your kids probably have – it’s an explosive mix.

No matter what the age of the children, you can expect your peripherals to take a beating. Ideally, we would all invest in superstrong industrial kit, such as the T2000 keyboard from Terralogic (www.terralogic.co.uk), which can handle up to four inches of rain (or more likely, juice). Or the Durapoint industrial mouse (www.steadlands.com), which can safely be thrown off a five-storey building, run over by an 18-wheel truck and beaten with a hammer. Unfortunately, sourcing these items is just about impossible, unless you’re prepared to buy in bulk. So if you aren’t setting up a retail franchise…

The real worry for us parents, though, is what children use the computer for. It’s bad enough that they’ve already borrowed Soldier Trainer 3 from the cool kids in the playground, and are now learning marksmanship behind your back, without the added worry of what web sites they’re visiting and who they’re talking to.

Breathe Easier

There’s no substitute for sitting with your kids and teaching them to use a PC responsibly, but in the longer term, when you can’t always be in the room with them, Windows Vista will let you breathe a bit more easily. In Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate editions, you can set up monitored accounts for every youngster in your family from the Control Panel, using the Parental Controls button.

From here you can create user accounts within which your child can fully personalise their desktop and settings. But what they can view, read and play is controlled by filters for games and web content.

Be sure – Restricting access to sites you know are suitable is a great solution for those with small kids

The Web Filter option is particularly useful for very young children, because you can make an exclusive access list of sites you know are suitable, and limit your child’s browsing to these. I recommend CBeebies (www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies) as a good starting point. If you go to the Grownups section on that web site, there are some helpful guidelines about how to give your kids computing time responsibly.

Be safe – Work with older children to build a list of allowed sites that keeps everyone happy

Tamsin MacKay contributes to Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, and works as a freelance journalist.

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Tags: do more, Guides, kids, online, productivity, safe, security, tamsin mackay