How to Enable Parental Controls in Windows 10

Learn how to enable parental controls in Windows 10 to ensure your child’s safety and well-being online. Follow our step-by-step guide for a worry-free browsing experience.

Most parents want to protect their children from consuming unwanted content. This can be done in different ways, for example, through the parental control function. You will learn how to enable and configure it in Windows 10 from our material.

What is parental control

Parental control is a special security tool that allows adults to protect children from unwanted content, block dangerous programs and monitor their actions. Most often, this function is used for the following purposes: 

  • Limit the time your child spends on the computer;
  • Blocking malicious applications;
  • Filtering visited sites;
  • Control over children’s actions online and over the device as a whole

Thanks to this, parents can rest assured that their children will not be able to access unauthorized resources or launch games with adult content.

How to enable parental control

How to Enable Parental Controls in Windows 10How to Enable Parental Controls in Windows 10

To enable this option on Windows 10, you need to create a separate account for the new user:

  • From Start, open Settings and click on the Accounts tab;
  • On the left, click on “Family and other users”, and on the right, click on “Add new account”;
  • In the window that appears, click on “Add a child account”, fill in the information about the child and save.

That’s all, actually. The system will automatically select all restrictions based on the specified age. In total, the system provides for five such categories:

  • for all ages;
  • from 6 years;
  • from 12 years old;
  • from 16 years old;
  • from 18 years old.

And yes, don’t forget to log into the child account before handing over the computer to a minor user.

How to set up parental controls

An adult account with administrator rights allows you to adjust protection at your own discretion. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

  • In Settings, open the Accounts tab and click Family & other users again;
  • Click on the button “Manage Family Settings Online”;
  • The Family Safety window will open, where you can edit various parameters of this tool.

After that, all that remains is to set the necessary restrictions, for example, block access to a specific site or turn on a computer work timer. And remember, online restrictions only apply to the built-in Windows browsers Edge and Internet Explorer, which is why it is better to include third-party programs in the blacklist.

How to turn off parental controls

All protective tools can be removed in just a few clicks. To do this, simply:

  • Open the tabs “Settings”, “Accounts” and “Family & other users” one by one;
  • Click on “Manage Family Settings Online” and go to Family Safety;
  • Click on the three dots on the child’s account icon and select “Remove from family group”;
  • You can also simply delete your account in the Account tab.

All these manipulations can be done only in a profile with “Administrator” rights. After that, the previously created account will be deleted, and with it parental control. In some cases, for the changes to take effect, you will need to reboot the device.  

Third-party parental control software

If you don’t want to mess around with Windows settings, you can use special applications. They are also capable of protecting children from the dangers of the Internet, specifying the period of operation of the device and providing all the necessary statistics. 

The most popular utilities are Kaspersky Safe Kids , Norton Family and McAfee Safe Family . Although the programs differ in appearance, interface design and available functionality, they work on the same principle.  

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