Dad loves Surface

Mt. Rainier

I have given a surface to my daughter. A lot of my friends/family ask me how I like using Surface and whether my daughter likes it as well. I can tell you that the killer feature from dad’s point of view is Family Safety. I am not an iPad/Android user, so I do not know how they do in this area, but I love the capability in Windows. In my humble opinion this is pretty under-sold and a lot of parents are unaware of this gem.

You just need to follow the steps at https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/set-up-family-safety to set it up either for a new account or for your child’s existing Microsoft account. Once you do just head onto https://familysafety.microsoft.com/

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Tap/click into your child’s account and you can setup various things. I use all of them including time restrictions, app restrictions.

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I get weekly email with her activity report and can ding her on the time she spends on Netflix.

Also I get an email when she tries to install weird games. And no I’m not going to allow her to use Gangnam Guy

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Setting daily time limits and curfew hours is fun :)

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When she goes out of this time range Surface locks up with a screen asking her to take the device to a parent to unlock. I can use my live ID and extend her hours if I so want. Now the main problem is to say no to such a cute face :)

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