LiveSide - News blog

Family Safety Gets Update - Contact Controls

Last week Windows Live Family Safety got updated to allow parents to have some control over who their children can have on their contact list within Windows Live Messenger, so long as you are using the current version (which for this to work needs to be 8.5).

To start off with, the parent will have to change the settings for the child within the Family Safety settings area:

The child then gets this when they next sign into Messenger:

As well as a prompt to show them what they can do.

Now, when they want to add a contact to their contact list, they will get a slightly different UI from normal:

This sends the request to the parent for them to approve, which they can do from the Family Safety settings page again:
fss approve contact

It is clear that Microsoft is taking child online safety seriously which can only be applauded as it appears none of the major online players are adopting anything similar.

Published Aug 06 2007, 11:52 PM by ScottIsAFool

Filed under: Windows Live Family Safety

Comments

	calum-r- said: This is very good to see!! And what is even better to see is that Microsoft are not copying anyone else, they7 have thought for themselves here!! :) :p August 7, 2007 12:21 AM
	Khristopher said: the "current" version is 8.1. Usually when someone refers to the current version of software, it's the latest stable release, not a beta. August 7, 2007 12:59 AM
	ScottIsAFool said: The Family Safety page itself specifies the current version needed to be 8.5, which is why I specified what they meant by current version ;) August 7, 2007 1:03 AM
	zackwhittakerlive said: Hey, this has been around for a while actually - but it's great to see that people are promoting this :) Admittidly, left Scott a message earlier saying that it's been out for months... well technically not quite true, my bad. The idea was thought about around a year ago, since 8.5 it's been made possible - framework was in place, but after the recent changes in the Live products, it's been rolled out and fully implemented. Microsoft are a big player in family/web safety - from the people I've done work with, the general consensus is that, "we helped create the Internet, it's only fair that we try and saften it for the kids" which is entirely true. Of all the giants out there - Microsoft are doing their part more than anyone, with more initiatives in web safety, global citizenship and governmental links to try and collaborate and cooperate in such matters. Great post Scott :-) August 7, 2007 1:49 AM
	quikboy said: Yeah. That's cool. But I'm quite sure that not everybody would view it this way. To some, it's like another case of Microsoft trying to block access to something. Restrict them. This probably won't be so hot with pre-teens. And suppose the child gets older. Would the the account still be kept that way forever. With only the parents' consent. Because sometimes parents won't. Plus getting a whole new account would mean updating your friend's on this, and losing data associated with your old account. So does Microsoft have something in plan for that? I'm not trying to be negative, but this probably won't hit so well on everyone. Most people are likely to complain about this. August 7, 2007 3:14 AM
	jackiboi said: oooh now i can have control over my little brother muahaha August 7, 2007 3:43 AM
	ScottIsAFool said: @Quickboy: All restrictions can be removed with a few clicks of the mouse. Of course the bribary to make that happen... Different story ;) August 7, 2007 10:00 AM