In this review - about the possibilities of Microsoft Family Safety, about what is required for use and on some nuances, the knowledge of which can be useful if you decide to use this tool for the functions of parental control.
Use Microsoft Family Safety
First of all, in order to enjoy Microsoft Family Safety and you, and the child should have its own Microsoft account used in Windows 10 or on Xbox - we will use the same accounts in the application.
Also, the child account must be added to your family group: it can be done in the application itself (on the parent phone), but I did it for a long time on the computer, a detailed description of the steps: Parental control of Windows 10 (all settings and restrictions set in this way will automatically be downloaded both in Family Safety).
After that, the procedure will be as follows:
- Install the Family Safety application from Play Market or Apple App Store on your parent phone, we enter your Microsoft account. If there are accounts for children in the family group, they will immediately appear, and you can already manage their devices.
- If necessary (this is not necessary, if only the computer and the console is required), install the Family Safety and the child's smartphone, we use its account. When installing on Android, the phone with a controlled Microsoft account will need to give an application a number of permissions aimed at determining the location, prohibiting the start of your selected applications, monitoring the device utilization time.
In fact, these are all necessary actions - immediately after that you can start using the application, receive the use reports, see the location of the child (and it can see yours if you gave the appropriate permission on your smartphone). Affordable features:
- The use of all child devices with Microsoft account is a computer or laptop, Xbox console, smartphone.
- Content filter (sites, applications, online search). Consider that the contents filter on the Internet and visited sites are available only when using Microsoft Edge and search Bing, the launch of other browsers will have to be prohibited if this feature is needed.
- Accounting for using and prohibiting the launch of selected applications and games on all devices - all programs from the computer, Android applications, games on the console will be displayed in the list.
- Time setting when you can use devices: for all devices immediately or separately: for example, you can allow you to use the smartphone around the clock, and the computer is only on certain days and within a certain time.
- Search for a baby's location on the map. Also on the map you can add names for places, for example, in order to instead of the street and the house there is a "school".
The application is not complicated at all and, sure, any relatively easy to figure it out with its use: all items are sufficiently clear, with the exception of several raw translations in individual sections of Microsoft Family Safety (for example, in maps).
At the end of one important feature of Family Safety when used for parental control on the Android device of the child (Windows 10 and Xbox controls, this does not concern this: Unlike the Google Family Link (the official application of parental control for Android), "Family Safety" from Microsoft is very It is easy to disconnect and removed without parental permission, it should be taken into account this and either negotiate with the child, or, if necessary, use other Android tools.