Microsoft is rolling out a new Family Safety app for Android and iOS to help you protect your family online.
The new app syncs across Windows, Xbox and Android, so whether it’s monitoring internet usage on a laptop or late-night Fortnite sessions, parents will be able to receive reports on app usage and overall screen time for their children. The app also includes the ability to set app time limits and even block certain apps — however, children will be allowed to request extensions.
Each week, the app’s users, parents and kids, will receive an email detailing the child’s digital activity across different devices, apps and websites. A web and search filters function can block adult content and certain websites for safe browsing. The purchase request email alert will also come in handy to prevent kids from buying things from the Microsoft Store without their parents’ knowledge.
There’s also a location sharing function which you might not be using much at the moment but probably will at some point in the future. The map allows you to see each of a family members’ last known location. Microsoft says that it won’t sell or share this location data to third parties.
In the future, it will add location alerts to notify you when a family member arrives or departs a specific location, say school or work, but you’ll have to be a Microsoft 365 subscriber to access this.
To access all the features, you need to download the app on your device and ask your family members to do the same. Then you can set up a Family Group, before establishing things like app limits and screentime reports. You will also have to ensure that your family is using Microsoft products, such as the Edge browser instead of Google Chrome for instance for the web and search filters to work.
Given we’re still spending most of our time at home, monitoring online usage in a non-overbearing manner is something many parents will find useful. If you’re not a Microsoft gadget owner then Apple and Google have their own parental control tools, such as Screentime for iOS and Google Family Link for Android.
