Windows Live Family Safety: Blog

Blogging about Windows Live Family Safety?

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:32:01 GMT

Hello,

This post is to invite people blogging about Windows Live Family Safety on their own blogs to visit this blog and join the conversation.

We're happy to get all kinds of feedback, good or bad.

Running list of mentions of Windows Live Family Safety online:

Yoblooc - (if this is your blog, please send us details)

Komando's Q & A -

Geekzone -

We'll edit this post as more come in.

Best,

- Elizabeth Grigg

Program Manager

Windows Live Family Safety

What happens when you’re signed in to the web and the filter as different people?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:59:03 GMT

Here’s an example involving how the Family Safety filter and the browsing you may do online that is sometimes a sticking point for new users. As you know, once you’ve installed the Family Safety filter(*), you’ll need to sign in as a member of the family in order to start browsing online. For this example, the family has the following settings:

Parent: All websites allowed, no blocked sites

Child: Small list of allowed websites, rest of the Internet is blocked

If you’ve signed in as the parent, all browsing will be available to you. Most Windows Live sites including Family Safety have a “sign in” link in the upper right corner. You may have signed in to the Family Safety filter as the parent, but now that the Internet is available to you, you can sign in to any Windows Live (or other) website as yourself, or someone else, or even your child. The Internet is available to you fully, there is no restriction on who or how you sign in to a particular website.

Question: Given that you’re signed in as the parent with the Family Safety filter, what websites will be allowed for you if you sign in to a Windows Live website as your child?

Answer: You’ll still be getting the parent’s settings.

As a new user, if your expectation was that signing in to the child via a Windows Live website changes who you’re signed in as with the filter, it will appear that the Family Safety filter is not working. In actuality, the Family Safety filter is working, just with the more permissive parent settings.

As a note of assurance, it can be hard to keep track on the web exactly what information gets beamed down to your local machine, and what information stays up there. It can be hard to tell the difference between using a program and changing settings on a website, especially if you’ve been working with a program such as Family Safety that uses the website to CONTROL the functionality of the filter which is local to your machine. Please explore how this works and let us know your thoughts on signing in (both on the web and with the filter) in the comments.

(*) The Family Safety filter is a program that you download and install when you choose to install Family Safety on your computer.

- Elizabeth Grigg, Program Manager, Family Safety

How do you use accounts?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:24:27 GMT

Over here on the Family Safety team, we hear a lot about accounts. There are many different types. In general, when someone is talking about an online “account” they mean a username and password pair that gives them personalized access to products and services. Probably the oldest kind of account online is an e-mail account. Your username is your e-mail address (or just the front part, minus the @domain stuff), and your password is something you picked out and hopefully you change it regularly. To get your e-mail, you need to enter these two pieces of information into the system. Accounts are used for purchases, chat, and generally membership in anything online. One person can have many accounts, and it’s likely this is not uncommon even in children.

Looking at Family Safety software at Microsoft, there are still a lot of different accounts involved. If you’re using Windows Vista parental controls, you apply those controls to a Windows account that your child uses. Some household computers may not have that additional Windows account until the administrator realizes they want to apply parental controls. One thing that Windows does well is to provide an option to create a new Windows account while you’re in the process of setting up parental controls. It would be a pain to have to navigate somewhere else to do this and then come back to setting up parental controls. Windows accounts can be limited accounts or administrator accounts. Administrators can do things like install and uninstall software. You can see how if you’re creating a new Windows account for your child, you’d want that account to be Limited. All Windows accounts can have passwords, but not all do. If your machine has an administrator account without a password, it’s the same as elevating the privileges of all the limited accounts on your machine.

Other Family Safety services from Microsoft are based on online ids called a Passport or Windows Live Account. This is also referred to as a “Windows Live ID.” Of course you have to sign on to your computer somehow. You’ll still use a Windows account for that. After you’ve done that, to access your online services with Windows Live such as Hotmail and Messenger, you’ll use a Windows Live ID. It’s a bit confusing because the word Windows is used in both places. The word to focus on is Live… the reason why this term is helpful is it sounds like something that is alive, that can move around from place to place. A Windows Live ID is useful from any machine with online access, whereas if you create a Windows account, it’s local so it’s only applicable to that one machine.

In usability tests we sometimes see users get hung up on prompts for a Windows Live ID, especially if they have just been through a setup process with their Windows account. Say you create a Windows account called Mom. Then you install Family Safety software from Windows Live and are prompted to sign in. What do you sign in with, is it Mom again? One thing we can do a better job with is help people understand what we’re asking for every time they’re prompted to sign in. Key to doing this is to explain the difference between the different types of accounts. Similar to your Windows account, you can select your Windows Live account to remember your password, which also effectively lets anyone with access to your machine sign in online as you. This does not sound important… after all, these people are invited into your home… but keep in mind for Family Safety, the account settings are maintained online. If you said “no” to a request from your child to view a website, that setting can be changed to “yes” if the settings see appropriate credentials.

Given this landscape, we’d like to ask users of Windows Live OneCare Family Safety how they use their accounts.

Specifically:

1) Do you have a separate Windows account for each family member, or do some still share even after installing Windows Live OneCare Family Safety?

2) Do all these Windows accounts have their own passwords?

3) Are you aware of the privileges between administrator and limited accounts, and do the children end up with limited accounts?

4) If your children are too young to type a password, what choices have you made to work around that?

5) When prompted for a Windows Live ID, do you know what you’re being asked for?

6) Do you know if your child has membership accounts online? (Hint: The Windows Live OneCare Family Safety activity report can provide you with a list of websites your child has visited).

7) Make up your own question and answer it here!

Thanks in advance for the feedback and for taking the time to contribute.

- Elizabeth Grigg, Program Manager, Family Safety

Thank you for your patience – more posts coming soon

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:21:54 GMT

The good news is, the Family Safety team has been working hard on the next release. The bad news is, this has not left a lot of time for posting to this blog and we apologize for that. While we’re working on some new posts, we have the following suggestions:

· For individual support, please access https://support.live.com/

· We’ll keep comments open on this blog. We welcome comments as it can be a great way for individuals to share information with the entire community

· Suggestions for new blog posts are encouraged!

Best,

- The Family Safety Team

Allowing Webkinz through Family Safety Settings

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:22:03 GMT

We have noticed an increase in users experiencing issues with Webkinz being blocked by Family Safety Settings. The reason for this is that Webkinz does not use URLs for their websites but rather uses IP addresses. There are a few IP addresses for Webkinz on the kid’s safe sites list, but webkinz can change or expand the list at any time.

The best way to allow access to the Webkinz site is to check the exact IP address shown in the block message for Family Safety users that have IE 7 installed. This is the address that should be added to the "Allow" list. If another change occurs on the Webkinz side, this new address should be added as well. Unfortnately, there is no way for Microsoft to anticipate what IP addresses Webkinz will use, and allow them to eliminate this issue.

If you have any problems with allowing IP addresses, please feel free to seek help through our Support contact at http://support.live.com

The next generation of Windows Live has shipped

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:47:47 GMT

Everyone here at Windows Live OneCare Family Safety is proud to be a part of this momentous Windows Live release. Read the offical word here. Note that Family Safety is prominently mentioned! Cheers go out to each of you who helped to make this product better by using it and sending us feedback.

Website Update

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:50:18 GMT

As of Oct 10, the website component of Windows Live OneCare Family safety has been updated. Most of you will not notice any changes, as this is mostly a bug fix release. One important piece of what we shipped includes a web page which will convert your MSN Premium Parental Controls family to Windows Live OneCare Family Safety if that is something you choose to do at this time. Under normal operation this website will help you complete this process in just a few steps, with very little information needed by you (the parent) in order to complete successfully. We're happy to release this update and will continue to improve the quality of the product thanks to your feedback.

Windows Live Messenger works with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:14:44 GMT

Back in August, the Messenger team crowed about their integration with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. And deservedly so! A lot of hard work went in to the various features that makes it possible for kids to have a safe IM experience online. Take a look at what the Messenger team had to say (http://messengersays.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5B410F7FD930829E!28852.entry) and leave comments here regarding how it worked out for you.

- The Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Team

Workaround for client setup error message "Family Safety: This account has not yet reviewed the Windows Live Terms of Use. Please go to tou.live.com before continuing with setup."

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:30:37 GMT

Dear Family Safety Customers,

During client setup, some people have experienced the error message : "Family Safety: This account has not yet reviewed the Windows Live Terms of Use. Please go to tou.live.com before continuing with setup.", the link specified with the error message is incorrect.

The correct link for resolving the "Term of Use" requirement is: http://g.live.com/0fsenus4/nexusmigrate for all the languages.

When you experience this error, please go to the above page. After accepting "Term of User", you can then continue with Family Safety client setup.

Sorry for any confusion caused.

Thank you!

Family Safety Team.

The latest Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta is now available

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:18:45 GMT

Thanks to everyone who's been visiting our website and trying out Family Safety. http://onecare.live.com/familysafety

It's been too long since we last updated this blog -- apologies for the silence. We've been working away, making improvements and adding features based on your feedback. We hope you'll like the updates !

Our newest beta includes :

Contact Management (parents can manage who's allowed to see their children's Spaces, and who's allowed to contact their children's accounts via Messenger and Hotmail)

Improved site flow, making it easier to review your children's settings and requests

Reduced number of sign-ins needed while browsing

In addition, the Family Safety client now is now included with Windows Live Suite.

Please visit our website, and let us know what you think.

Hotmail access problems

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:12:23 GMT

Here's a quick update : some commenters have reported problems accessing Hotmail, and getting a not-very-useful message referring to Family Safety. Our apologies for the problem -- the Support team is actively investigating this.

Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta refresh now available!

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:01:32 GMT

Thanks to everyone who has installed the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta since our release in August! The Family Safety team has been working over the last few months to enhance and improve the service, and we're excited to announce some significant changes available in this update:

Simplified account creation. We've greatly simplified and reduced the number of steps required to create Windows Live IDs for kids and add them to the service - you can now create accounts for your family and configure the service in just a few clicks.
Improved performance while browsing. We've made a number of improvements to the Family Safety software that make Web browsing faster when running the service.
Improved sign-in experience. When you sign-in to the Family Safety software on your computer and click on a link from the Family Safety menu, you'll be automatically signed-in to the Family Safety web site.

Microsoft continues to improve and enhance OneCare Family Safety and we hope that you will try the updated service and give us your thoughts on the new features. If you've already installed the product you can continue using your current accounts -- you'll be prompted to update the Family Safety software on your computer, but all of your family's settings on the Web site will remain unchanged and you'll be able to continue using the service with no interruptions.

If you're just getting started with the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta, visit http://ideas.live.com

Thanks to everyone who has installed the beta so far and welcome to those of you who are installing for the first time! We look forward to your continued impressions of the product.

The OneCare Family Safety Team

Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta now available!

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 15:59:44 GMT

You might have heard back in March that we were doing some limited beta testing on parts of a new, free family safety service called Windows Live Family Safety Settings. The features we tested earlier this year represented just a portion of the full service we’re making available today, and we’re excited to announce the release of our new Windows Live OneCare Family Safety public beta available in the US through http://ideas.live.com.

While we are still in the testing and development phase, OneCare Family Safety will offer some great features to help families create a safer and enjoyable online experience, including:

Content filtering. Web filtering will allow customers to choose allow, block or warn settings for a range of content categories, and unique settings can be applied for each member of the household. Parents can review and adjust settings any time from any Internet-connected PC to help meet the family’s evolving needs, and your family’s settings will be automatically applied to any computer that has the Family Safety software installed.
Expert Guidance. Expert guidance from respected child organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics on age appropriate settings and online activities will provide valuable guidance for parents. For example, users will have access to guidelines on how to help a child use online communications safely or how parents should talk to children about inappropriate Web browsing.
Activity reports. Parents will be able to access activity reports for each user in the family, anytime from any Internet-connected PC, to help them stay informed about how their children are browsing the Web. This kind of information can help facilitate important conversations between parents and children about using the Internet in a way they feel is safe and appropriate.
Contact management. In future versions of the service, parents will be able to create “allow” lists for other Windows Live services their children might use to communicate with others – like instant messaging, for example – to help prevent their children from crossing paths with unknown contacts and instead only communicate with contacts that parents have approved.

Microsoft is focused on improving our new OneCare Family Safety service and we hope that you will try it out and offer your thoughts on its features and usability. Please feel free to comment in this blog with feedback on your testing experience. While we can’t respond to each entry, the OneCare Family Safety team reviews all feedback received and we’ll be making frequent updates to this blog throughout the course of the beta. Your feedback and suggestions are important to help us ship the best OneCare Family Safety service!

To get started with the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta, visit http://ideas.live.com. For those of you not in the US, stay tuned for more information about international availability very soon.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you,

The OneCare Family Safety Team

Welcome to the Microsoft Family Safety Blog!

Tue, 16 May 2006 18:03:44 GMT

This blog is maintained by the Family Safety team at Microsoft, and over the coming weeks we’ll be posting previews of the service with a tutorial covering key elements and tips and tricks for keeping your family safe online.

Feel free to post questions about the upcoming Family Safety release, leave feedback about your experience with the recent Beta or leave suggestions for features you’d like to see in the future.

Thanks for your interest!

The Microsoft Family Safety Team