- [Narrator] In this video,
I show you how to use Microsoft Family Safety
to help promote healthy technology habits for your children
by managing their screen time.
(upbeat music)
Technology is an important foundation for every child,
giving them important skills
that they'll need in adult life.
However, unrestricted access without oversight
and guidance could potentially be harmful.
Helping your children to understand and navigate
the complex and overwhelming digital world
at an early age can seem overwhelming in itself.
That's why using technology to help parents
manage the process is an ideal situation.
Microsoft launched Family Safety,
an app and web-based system to give parents
the tools to educate the children
on how to be safe, digital citizens
while maintaining some control over the content
they are able to access.
Family Safety features enable parents and guardians
to set limits and monitor their children's activities
on Windows 10 PCs, Xbox consoles,
and connected Android devices.
The primary functionality of the features
can be controlled via a web interface on a browser,
with parents filtering their child's access
to age-appropriate apps, games, and video content.
The complimentary app on Android and iOS
gives you further access
while away from your desktop computer,
including the ability to review
and approve activities for your child.
Family Safety also includes some additional features
such as shared calendars
and the option to create shared notes,
which could include things like reminders, shopping lists,
and become a central resource for the whole family
to keep track of important real-life events.
To set up your family safety account,
first step is to go to account.microsoft.com/family
and log in with your Microsoft credentials.
Once you've logged in, you can invite other adults
into your family group by email.
As part of the invitation process,
you can assign them a role
with different kinds of permissions.
As part of the setup,
it's recommended to use the family safety app
available on Google Play and Apple App store.
If your children don't already have a Microsoft account,
you'll also need to set that up too.
Click on the plus sign
at the top of the Family Safety account page,
choose create an account
and then create a new email account
following the instructions.
To connect your child's Android device,
you'll need to download and install the Family Safety app,
Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Launcher
or Your Phone Companion from the Google Play store
and then sign in with their Microsoft account.
Organizers are the admins for the family group
but there can be more than one for each family.
They're in charge of adding and removing people
from the family group and managing settings for others.
Depending on the age set on the Microsoft account
and which permissions a member has turned on,
organizers can set up screen time limits,
content filters for apps, games, and web browsing,
as well as approve and review purchases.
Members can be children or adults.
Microsoft requires parental consent
for Microsoft accounts with a birth date
that's below our country's minimum age requirements.
For child accounts below the minimum age,
organizers have control over
the account's data sharing permissions.
Once kids reach a minimum age for their country,
like 13 in the US,
they have more control over their account,
can leave the family group,
and can decide what kind of data they share
with other family members.
This includes letting organizers monitor their devices,
share activities across games, apps, and web,
and review their location.
As your family starts to use the app,
those members with activity monitoring turned on,
will generate reports that can be reviewed by organizers.
Now you'll be able to see your kids' weekly activity
across all of their apps, games, and devices.
This includes multiple computers
where your members are logged in on Windows 10.
For members who do not share their activities,
such as older children or adults,
you'll only be able to see them listed
on the main web control panel and the app.
The top of the screen time section gives you a breakdown
of your child activities by device,
providing a handy overview.
Plus it even gives you a week-on-week comparison
to measure their access
and make refinements to their schedule.
Under the screen time management panel for members,
you can create specific schedules for your children.
This area enables you to set a weekly schedule
with specific windows for screen time.
For example,
you can set restrictions limiting screen time
early in the morning or later in the evenings
to promote good sleep routines.
You can further refine the schedule to block out mealtimes
or other important segments of your day as a family.
Furthermore, you can specify the total amount
of screen time in a day.
This enables your child to manage their own access
to their favorite activities.
Your child can now decide how they want to use
their total allocation of screen time.
They may want to use 30 minutes in the morning,
and then save the remainder for after dinnertime
or after they've completed their homework.
Under the Overview panel,
there's a section called App and game limits
where you can have more macro control
over the access to different apps and games.
Clicking on the title gives you a summary screen
similar to the screen time breakdown.
You can review individual applications
and games in the list below.
Clicking further,
you can see more specific details about the app or game,
including setting individual timelines
or blocking inappropriate applications.
To set an age filter, all you need to do
is click on the section by the controller icon.
Now you're able to select the correct age rating
via the drop-down menu.
The age rating uses a number of references
from official rating agencies,
such as the ESRB, Canadian Broadcast Standards Council,
and Microsoft's own database
from the metadata supplied by app developers.
When a child wants to surf the web or play a game,
they'll have access based on the settings
in the Family Safety app.
If the activities fall outside of a predetermined schedule
or should the activity include a new website or game,
the organizers will receive a request notification
via Windows 10 or the mobile app.
From here, the parent can approve or choose
what time increment they want to award to the child.
Family Safety can be used to monitor
and control access to online content
when children are using the Edge web browser.
The options can be reached either
by clicking on Web and search from the Overview
or by clicking on content filters
in the left-hand navigation.
From here,
you'll get a digest of your child's activity
for recent searches and websites visited.
You can filter by current week or the previous week.
Below are two important features that you can use
depending on the age of your child
and personal requirements.
The first is the option to turn on Safesearch
which uses Microsoft's own filters,
blocking mature content on Bing.
The second feature is the ability
to designate approved websites for media access
or request approval for websites
that you are unfamiliar with.
Some parents of younger children
may find this feature particularly useful.
For older children,
you may find the option to leave it off,
but Safesearch on enough.
The Spending section enables you
to set up an allowance for purchases on the Microsoft Store,
and Xbox Store for games add-ons and apps.
Beneath this section,
there are options for two features
to further monitor your child's purchases.
Organizer approval for purchases enables you
to review requests in detail,
even beyond the content filter settings.
As noted in the description, the one exception for purchases
is that your child can enter their own gift cards
received as presents or purchased elsewhere.
The second option found here
is the ability to receive emails
when your child purchases games or apps.
This enables you to retroactively review games and apps
while giving your child more control and responsibility.
The next section gives you an overview
of the account balance.
Here you'll see the remaining money your child has
from either the transfers you've made
or from their gift cards added to their account.
It also includes an option to add more money.
The final feature is Find Your Child,
which uses your child's device location settings
to add them to a map.
However, as noted later in this video
there are some limitations.
The biggest one being
that it's not available on devices other than phones.
For Android devices,
the process is a little long-winded
and not terribly intuitive.
Furthermore, the app isn't compatible
with all Android devices.
This was true of the Lenovo Tab M7,
an entry-level tablet that is ideal for children.
However, all is not lost as Google's own Family Link app
is a much better option for Android compatibility.
One consideration for using Family Safety as a group
is that all members must have an Outlook
or Hotmail email account.
It makes sense that Microsoft
would want to maintain their ecosystem
and recruit new users.
Thankfully, it's very straightforward to create new accounts
but it does require starting new accounts
if you're not already a Microsoft user.
The final significant drawback for reviewing
and monitoring your child's online usage
is that you're only able to access control
of the Edge browser as part of the screen time limits.
Providing you set up devices with only access to Edge,
that's not a problem unless your child uses Google Chrome
or other browsers such as Firefox.
Microsoft Family Safety is a great accompaniment
along with other dedicated apps to help promote
healthy digital behaviors for your family.
As well as enabling parents to feel confident
that their very young children can be left unsupervised
with the correct settings in place,
it gives you the option to adapt your level of oversight
as your child grows older.
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and found the video interesting and informative,
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