 As a parent, you want to help make your family's experiences safer and more secure, and you want to provide good guidance. Windows Live Family Safety can help. Family Safety is a free service designed to help families stay safe online.
You can use Family Safety along with other Microsoft safety features like Parental Controls in Windows Vista, and Internet Explorer security settings, to help ensure online safety. If you’re using Windows Vista, you can turn on Parental Controls for each of your children's accounts. Then you can set time limits, game rating restrictions, and program limits for each family member who uses the computer. Use Family Safety to: | • | Set up web filtering to allow only the content you want your kids to see. Use contact management to choose who they talk to online when they use Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Spaces. You can customize settings for each family member. | | • | Manage your kids’ safety settings from any computer, and get Web-based reports that show what your kids are doing online. You can grant or deny requests to view specific Web sites from almost any computer online. | | • | Steer your kids toward appropriate websites by setting your browser’s home page to the Family Safety child-friendly sites page. |
Step 1: Install the Family Safety Filter on your family computer
To help ensure family safety with Windows Vista, first you turn on the Parental Controls feature for your child's account, and then you adjust Web restrictions, time limits, game ratings, and program limits for the account. You must install Family Safety Filter on each computer where you want to use Family Safety settings.
We recommend that every computer you install the software on be set up with separate Windows accounts for each family member. Make sure to give each account a password so you can set up Family Safety to automatically sign someone in when they log on to Windows. To install Family Safety: 1. | On the computer your family uses, visit to the Windows Live Essentials download page, and then click Download. | 2. | On the Choose the programs you want to install page, select Family Safety and any other Windows Live programs you want, and then click Install. |
Step 2: Set up the Family Safety Filter1. | On the Start menu, click All Programs, click Windows Live, and then click Windows Live Family Safety. | 2. | Enter the Windows Live ID of the parent who will be the primary Family Safety administrator, and then click Sign in. If you don’t have a Windows Live ID, click Sign up. If you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox LIVE you already have a Windows Live ID. |
Step 3: Visit the Family Safety Web site to add family members and customize their settingsTo add family members and customize their settings, go to the Family Safety Web site. On the site you can also check activity reports and respond to requests from your children to view specific Web pages. Only you and other parents you add to Family Safety can manage family members. After you’ve added family members, you can customize their settings to filter Web content based on pre-set filtering levels or with custom Allow or Block lists you create. You can choose from specific categories to limit access to inappropriate web content. 1. | Go to the Family Safety Web site, and then click Add child on the Family summary page. | 2. | If your child already has a Windows Live ID, click Sign in with this child’s ID. If they don’t have a Windows Live ID, click Create child ID . | 3. | On the Web filtering page, choose to block or allow Web sites by category, or create a list of specific blocked or allowed Web sites. | 4. | To choose who your child can talk to online, click Contact management, and then follow the instructions on the page. You can allow your child to manage their own contact list, or you can add the e-mail addresses of specific people they are allowed to communicate with. |
Step 4: See reports about where your child went on the Web
After you add your children to Family Safety, their activity is automatically monitored even if you don’t customize their settings. On the Family Safety site, you can view activity reports for your children and respond to their requests. Help make sure kids use their settings The Family Safety Filter must be running for your kid’s settings to be applied. You can tell that the Family Safety Filter is running when the Family Safety  icon appears in the lower-right corner of your screen, where the time and some other icons appear. (This is called the "notification area" on your computer.)
Important: When you’re done using the computer, click the Family Safety icon to open the Family Safety Filter and sign out so that your kids don’t use your settings. When your kids are ready to use the computer, they can click the icon to sign in to the Family Safety Filter so that their settings will be applied. Never share your Windows Live ID password with your kids, because your password helps protect your Family Safety settings.
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