For the lack of a simple parental control feature...

[Mike Hickey]

<minor_rant_feature_request>
After more than a decade of Windows mobile OS usage, it seems I may be forced to purchase an iOS device for a simple purpose - management of my 9-year old's app usage on her phone. She's currently the proud owner of a Lumia 640 running Windows Phone 10 and she loves it. She's tried friends iOS and Android devices and always favors the Lumia. In fact, many of her friends favor the Lumia as well (think future generations of paying customers). The challenge is that for this market segment the OS has been hamstrung with a partial implementation of parental controls, actually going backwards from previous versions, and this confuses me. iOS has in-built restrictions (local management), and both iOS and Android have management applications available (Qustodio, etc). MS provides control with Family Safety which is great for the desktop but leaves off one critical component: Screen time. I recognize that it would need to be slightly different on the phone than on desktop, i.e. limit application invocation to only phone/SMS messaging if outside prescribed hours rather than limit access to the device a la desktop. Central management capability like that would put a Windows phone in the hands of every one of my peers kids (and their friends ... and their friends ... and their friends...)

</minor_rant_feature_request>

 

[Noahma]

There is a windows phone feedback app installed with Windows 10. I would post that in the feedback as a suggestion and see if it can be implemented. I know there would be some potential issues, say safety if you lock them out of the phone. Maybe still allow access to the people hub and the dialer on off hours. I would certainly upvote your suggestion.

 

[PPCFreak]

I would up vote this as well

 

[indospot]

Why don't you use the Kid's Corner though? And don't the parental controls on the MS account page apply to Windows phones as well?

Sent from mTalk

 

[drufranco]

I believe you can do all that through the web portal like mentioned above.
My teen has moved onto an IOS device but when she was on the Lumia Icon I had control of things through MS account page.

https://account.microsoft.com/family/about

 

[Noahma]

Why don't you use the Kid's Corner though? And don't the parental controls on the MS account page apply to Windows phones as well?

Sent from mTalk

Kids corner is great if you are handing your phone to your child, it does not work if the phone IS your child's. plus, at the moment you have to enter in the unlock code to get into kids corner.... Which in my mind defeats the purpose of kids corner all together.

I believe you can do all that through the web portal like mentioned above.
My teen has moved onto an IOS device but when she was on the Lumia Icon I had control of things through MS account page.

https://account.microsoft.com/family/about

You can do many things with the parental controls, but setting time limits on the use of the phone is not one of them. I have my daughters 640 locked down pretty tight, and get weekly reports of her activities, but I cannot prevent her from using the phone when she is not supposed to.

 

[drufranco]

Hmm I never knew iOS or Android had a free built in feature that could turn off the cellular and WIFI option (basically airplane mode) that could be implemented without the users knowledge or ability to turn if off. (Policy enabled I assume)
I simply just told my daughter at 10pm to put the phone on the counter and there it stayed until morning.
I will have to research this more for my younger son who is recently requesting a smartphone of his own.

 

[Noahma]

Hmm I never knew iOS or Android had a free built in feature that could turn off the cellular and WIFI option (basically airplane mode) that could be implemented without the users knowledge or ability to turn if off. (Policy enabled I assume)
I simply just told my daughter at 10pm to put the phone on the counter and there it stayed until morning.
I will have to research this more for my younger son who is recently requesting a smartphone of his own.

I don't think the Idea is to have the cell / wifi be turned off during the hours chosen by parents. Windows 10 lets you put out blocks of time where use / not use is set. So if my Daughter goes to log into her account at say 11pm, after her bedtime it will say that she no longer has time to use her account, and allows her to send a request to my wife or I to give her blocks of 30 min. It works VERY well. In my opinion better than apples system which is all on phone, where as windows is online based making it harder for sneaky kids to circumvent.
I think the idea would be to set off times that would only allow for phone calls, say even reduced cell calls to say parents or emergency numbers during times where you do not want your child to use the device. Another thing that desktop windows does that the phone does not do is to set a total number of use hours. I can approve my daughter for say an hour on sat. and 30 min. on Monday. It warns you as your getting close to the time limit so you can save and log out.

Right now my daughter is allowed to use her phone after she is done with homework, and up until bedtime when there are no other activities going on. I would like to automate the processes a little more if possible. This would certainly help as my son gets to a range where he can get a phone, but he is a VERY long way off.

 

[drufranco]

So if my Daughter goes to log into her account at say 11pm, after her bedtime it will say that she no longer has time to use her account, and allows her to send a request to my wife or I to give her blocks of 30 min

Good to know I will implement this in the future when I convince my son to go with a Windows Phone! :grincry:

 

[Noahma]

Good to know I will implement this in the future when I convince my son to go with a Windows Phone! :grincry:

Right now it only works with Windows 10 on desktop / tablets. The OP was asking about this feature on the phone, which is not implemented yet.

 

[Juan Rosado Casanova]

Have you tries Kids corner? settings-accounts-Kids Corner... There you set the apps and password for your kids to use. No store purchases nor internet access if you dont add it. I use it like that... Also there is Apps Corner for when you let someone use your device you activate it so they cant get nosey on your device.

 

[Fiann]

If you guys are on AT&T, check out the Smart Limits feature. You can restrict usage times for phone calls and text messaging, data usage, etc. You can also add override numbers. For instance, I have my son's phone disabled from calls and stuff during the day. But I have a list of numbers, mine, my girlfriend, grandparents, etc, that he can still contact through text or phone call even during blocked times.