Computer users seem to get younger and younger every day. When I was growing up I didn’t really use a computer until I was in my teens and that was only a little at school. I now work at a school and they use computers as early as Kindergarten! This is the reason why parental controls have become even more important.

The internet is a very useful thing for research, watching or listening to media, or connecting with friends and family. The problem is there are many things that are accessible very easily that younger audiences need protected from accessing by accident or on purpose.

Windows has built in parental controls or you can download software. To use the parental controls in Windows and only affect a particular person, they will have to have their own account on the computer.

If you are using Windows 7, you will need to create a standard user account using the administrator account. After the account is created, you can then manage the parental controls by clicking Start, then Control Panel, and then User Accounts and Family Safety. Then click Set up parental controls for any user, choose the account you want to add controls to and under Parental Controls, click On, enforce current settings. Now that the controls are activated you can adjust them how you want. You can set time limits, access to games, or allow/block programs. For more information you can go to Micosoft’s website.

In Windows 8 when you create an account there is an option to check if it is a child’s account. If the account is already created and you want to add the controls, tap or click Settings and then Change PC settings. Then click Accounts and then Other accounts. Choose the account you want to control and click edit. In the Account type list select Child and click Ok. After the account has controls turned on you can set controls on web activity and pc activity. To check into the activity on these accounts you can go to the Family Safety website to see reports. You will need to have a Microsoft account. For more information see Microsoft’s website.

There are many programs that you can get for parental controls also. A google search would be the best suggestion. Simply search for parental control for windows and check the results out. Some that I found to get you started would be Norton Online Family, AVG Family Safety, K9 Web Protection, and many more.