Parental control

With parental control, you can regulate surfing behaviour and computer use for your children.

Parental control

Under User, select a user who is logged on to your computer and then set the corresponding restrictions for this user. Via the button Create new user you can also directly create new accounts on your computer (e.g. for your children).

  • Parental lock for this user: Here you can activate or deactivate the parental control for the user selected above.

  • Prohibited content: This area opens a dialogue window in which you can block specific content on the Internet for the user currently displayed. Click on Edit ("Prohibited contents") to specify the prohibited contents for the respective user.

  • Permitted content: This area opens a dialogue window in which you can allow special content on the Internet for the currently displayed user. Click on Edit ("Permitted contents") to specify the permitted contents for the respective user.

  • Monitor internet usage time: Here you can define how long and at what times the selected user has Internet access. Click on Edit (Monitor Internet Usage Time) to determine the usage times for the respective user.

  • Monitor computer usage time: Here you can define how long and at what times the selected user may use the computer. Click on Edit (Monitor computer usage time) to define the usage times for the respective user.

  • Settings: Here you can change basic settings for the operation of the child lock and adapt them to your individual needs.

Create new user

Click on the button Create new user. A dialogue box opens in which you can enter the username and password for this user.

With regard to security aspects, a password should be at least eight characters long, contain upper and lower case letters and numbers.

Now the newly created username appears under "Users", and at the same time a Windows user account is created for this user. This means that the parental control is automatically active for the person with the respective settings who logs in with their username when Windows is started. Now double-click with the mouse on the settings area to be set for this user, e.g. the prevention of forbidden content or the exclusive provision of permitted content. In addition, you can specify whether the Internet usage time or computer usage time should be monitored for this user.

Prohibited content

This area opens a dialogue window in which you can block specific content on the Internet for the user currently displayed. To do this, select the desired categories that are to be blocked by placing a tick. Now click on Ok and the Internet pages that meet the criteria are thus blocked.

Parental control

If you click on New, a dialogue window opens in which you can define your own criteria (also called blacklists). First define the name and, if necessary, an information text for the individually created filter.

Parental control

If you now click on Ok, another window opens in which you can group together contents that are to be suppressed by this filter.

Parental control

To do this, enter a term to be blocked under Filter and the area of a website to be searched for under Search location, where you want to search for it.

Here you have the following choices:

  • URL: If you check this box, the text to be blocked is searched for in the web address. If you want to block pages which read, for example, www.chatcity.no; www.crazychat.co.uk or similar, it is sufficient to enter "chat" as the filter, check the box for URL and then click on Add. All pages that somehow contain the string "chat" in the domain name, i.e. the internet address somehow contain the letter sequence chat.

  • Title: If you check this box, the text to be blocked will be searched for in the title of the web page. This is the area, you see, for example, if you want to bookmark a page in your favourites list. If you want to block pages Chat City Detroit; Teenage Chat 2005 or similar, it is sufficient if you enter "chat" as the filter, tick the checkbox at Title and then click on Add. All pages that somehow use the string "chat" in their title will now be blocked.

  • Meta: The so-called metatags are hidden text entries on web pages that serve to list them more sensibly or simply more frequently in search engines. Search terms such as "sex" or "chat" are often used here to increase page views. If you want to prevent pages that have "chat" somewhere in the meta tag, it is sufficient if you enter "chat" as the filter, tick the meta box and then click on Add. All pages will now be blocked that use the string "chat" in the metatags in any way.

  • In the entire text: If you want to check the readable content of a page directly for content to be blocked, simply enter the term to be blocked - e.g. "chat". Check the box "In all text" and then click on the Add button. All pages that somehow contain the string "chat" in the displayed page text will now be blocked.

However, you can explicitly unblock special pages that accidentally fall into the filter area by using the exceptions function. To do this, simply click on Exceptions and enter the respective page there.

You can edit and, if necessary, delete filters you have created yourself in the "Own filters" area. For more information chapter "Custom Filters".

Permitted content

This area opens a dialogue window in which you can allow special content on the Internet for the currently displayed user. To do this, select the desired categories that are to be allowed by setting a ticking the checkbox. Now click on Ok and the Internet pages that meet the desired criteria are permitted.

Parental control

If you click on New, a dialogue window opens in which you can define your own content to be allowed (also called whitelists). First define the name and, if necessary, an information text for the individually created filter.

Parental control

Now click on Ok. A dialogue opens in which you can fill the whitelist with websites that are suitable.

Parental control

To do this, enter under "Filter" which domain name components should be allowed. If, for example, you want to release a website with child-friendly content, you can enter e.g. www.fragfinn.de here and thus allow access to this website. Now enter what can be found on this website under Description and enter the exact web address of the page under Link. The description and the link become important if your child, for example, actually calls up a page that you have not allowed. Instead of an error message, an HTML page will then appear in the browser that shows lists all the websites entered here in the whitelist, including their descriptions. In this way, your child can directly access the pages that are allowed for him or her. When all entries have been made, click on Add and the whitelist will be supplemented by these entries.

The filter searches for segments in the domain name. Depending on the specification in the filter, the results can therefore differ from each other. Further or tighter restrictions are helpful here depending on the website.

Monitor internet usage time

Here you can define how long and at what times a selected user has Internet access. To do this, set the checkbox under Monitor Internet Usage Time. Now you can determine how long the user may access the Internet in total per month, how long per week and how many hours on certain days of the week. For example, weekends can be handled differently for school-age children than the weekdays. You can simply enter the corresponding time periods for this under days/hh:mmv where, for example, the entry 04/20:05 would result in an Internet usage time of 4 days, 20 hours and 5 minutes.

Parental control
In the interaction of the data on internet use, the smallest value takes precedence. So if you set a time limit for the month of four days, but allow five days during the week, the software will automatically limit the user’s Internet use to four days.

If the respective user attempts to access the Internet beyond the permitted time quota, a message appears informing him/her that he/she has exceeded his/her time quota.

Monitor computer usage time

Here you can define how long and at what times a selected user is allowed to use the computer. To do this, tick the checkbox for Monitor computer usage time. Now you can determine how long the user may use the computer in total per month, how long per week and how many hours on certain days of the week. Weekends can be handled differently from weekdays. You can simply enter the corresponding time periods for this under Days/hh:mm, whereby e.g. the entry 04/20:05 would result in a computer usage time of 4 days, 20 hours and 5 minutes. Using the button Display warning message before time expires you can inform a user shortly before the computer is automatically shut down, so that he or she can still save his or her data. If the computer is shut down without a warning, this can lead to data loss.

Parental control

Lock times

Via the button Block / unblock times you can call up a dialogue box in which you can - in addition to the quantitative limitation - categorically block specific periods of time in the week. Blocked time periods are shown in red, unlocked periods are shown in green. To release or block a period, simply mark it with the mouse. Then a context menu appears next to the mouse pointer in which you have two options: Release time and Lock time. If the respective user tries to access the Internet during the blocked times, an info screen appears in the browser, informing him/her that he/she cannot access the Internet at this time.

Parental control

Custom Filter

In this area, you can modify the whitelists (i.e. permitted content) and blacklists (i.e. prohibited content) that you have created yourself.

Parental control

The following list types differ fundamentally from each other:

  • Permitted content: If you select a whitelist for one of the users selected above, they will only be able to view web pages that are on this whitelist. As the administrator, you can design this whitelist according to your own design or select the appropriate list for a user from predefined whitelists. A whitelist is particularly suitable for to allow younger children very limited access to the Internet, i.e. to give them the possibility to visit websites with pedagogically recommended content, but nothing beyond that.

  • Banned content: With a blacklist, you can block selected websites for a user. Beyond that, the user has free access to the Internet. Please note that you can use this function to block specific pages, but similar content may also be available on other websites. A blacklist of Internet addresses is never a complete protection against unwanted content in this respect.

The following buttons allow you to edit the exclusion lists:

  • Delete: Using the Delete function, you can easily delete selected lists.

  • New: Here you can create a completely new blacklist or whitelist. The procedure is the same as described in the chapters "Prohibited content" and "Permitted Inhalte".

  • Edit: Here you can change the content of an existing list.

Logs

This area allows you to change basic settings for the information in the protocol area. You can define whether violations of permitted and/or prohibited contents are to be logged or not. If the contents are logged, you can view the logs of the different users in the log area.

Since log files become very large with regular use, you can have the parental control display a warning under "Message" when the file reaches a certain size and then delete it if necessary.