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An Xbox is a nice gift for a child, but the game console has well-known dangers when connected to the Internet. It is the duty of parents to minimize them, especially when it comes to younger children. It's easy enough to do, because Microsoft pays a lot of attention to security features.
As for game consoles, they have functions for creating special children's profiles associated with the free Microsoft Family Safety service. It works on multiple consoles and is used in conjunction with a Microsoft account.
Security settings through Microsoft Family Safety
The ability to access family safety settings is provided from the account page. The first thing to do is to provide data on the composition of the family. When they are entered into Microsoft's registry, family settings will be applied to all of the company's products, including Windows and Office.
You can enter data about the composition of the family and create your own settings directly on the console, but it is more convenient to do it on a computer. These settings will work on all devices that the child will use under his Microsoft account (set-top box, smartphone, laptop, tablet, PC).
What you can control with Microsoft Family Safety
The list of options is quite large. For a specific child profile, it includes:
- the ability to filter which sites are prohibited to enter through the Xbox browser, and which are available for surfing;
- there is a choice of default settings (categories: children's, teenage, adult) with the ability to adjust the restrictions to your taste;
- you can specify who, besides you, can see when the child was online, what games he launched;
- you can also choose who will be allowed to see your child's real name and photo;
- it is possible to set restrictions on adding friends or joining game communities;
- there are also controls for launching streams and the ability to take screenshots;
- you can set restrictions on the ability to purchase games or share content using social networks.
The only thing you can't do in terms of managing parental controls directly in Xbox is setting time limits. Microsoft allows you to do this only on a computer ("Family Safety" page) or on a smartphone through specialized applications.
How to set screen time limits
Both on the website and in the application, this is done quite easily: you need to select the child's profile and go to the menu item related to screen time. Settings can be made common or shared between individual devices (for example, for Xbox and PC).
It is possible to set a limit on the total amount of time a child can work. It is also possible to specify the periods in which work will be prohibited. These parameters can be set differently for individual days of the week as needed.
You can also block access to certain devices. There are a few more nuances: if you have decided buy xbox s, then you can control not only the game experience of the child, but also what he buys online. And this, you must agree, is not the most important function of all the ones listed.
