Family Sharing and Parental Control

[wardo5757]

I've been a Windows Mobile fan for many years, I'm on Verizon, so the last good phone I could buy was the Icon, I still have it so I can keep up with the WM10 re-development. While this MS reboot is going on, I went to iPhone, my family of four were all on Windows Phone and surface tablets 1.5 years ago, we are ALL on apple devices now, but I still have the SP3 and Icon.
The iPhone is an very nice phone with very nice features, but I am still hoping that MS gets their act together and get us some nice hardware so we can get back to Windows. But in order to that, there is a feature on iPhone that MS must meet or beat in order to bring me back, it's the Family sharing on IOS.
When I created my Family in IOS I was able to add my wife then create 2 child accounts for my 10 and 11 year old. The child accounts cannot download any apps or purchase anything from the store without parental permission, and every purchase is shared with all family members. Also, all locations are constantly shared between devices in the family, and you can set notifications up that alert you when you child leaves a certain area, if you have children you know how much of a stress reliever that feature is. Then, on each child's device I am able to set a pin and restrict music, movies, videos, web content and every single setting of the iPhone, to the point that I could lock it down in every imaginable way, and it's the same on the kids IPads.
In order to go back to Windows, Ms will have to create some sort of Family feature that at least meets or surpasses what apple currently has, this is a big deal for me and my wife and I imagine there are a lot of other parents out there that feel the same. I created a suggestion at Windows Phone Uservoice with the hope that we can get MS to move on this,
https://windowsphone.uservoice.com/...uggestions/9766416-family-control-and-sharing
Please go there and vote it up and lets see if we can get a feature like this on WP10.

 

[a5cent]

I think W10 already has you covered, for the most part anyway.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/wi...osoft-family-and-windows-10-parental-controls

 

[Scorpio5x0]

I am not familiar with Apple's family safety and how it compares to Microsoft's family safety, but Microsoft has had family safety features for years. Although, the features were somewhat limited to pc online safety for prior OSs, Windows 10 brought some changes. It now monitors all Windows 10 devices to include Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1 and would imagine Xbox will be included once Windows 10 comes to the Xbox. I have been using it with my children for years on their phones and PCs.

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

 

[wardo5757]

That's a good article for the MS Family, they did add some functionality to it in W10, but it's now where even close to apple. Also, I haven't seen anything on mobile yet that allows parents to view almost real time location updates with almost total sharing between the family members.

 

[Mr. Brown]

I'm also wanting some of these features for my son's Windows Phone. I've been testing with mine that is running Windows 10 mobile, I 've reset my phone and logged in with my sons credentials. The only family safety feature that seems to work is the age restrictions for the store. I've tried setting screen time as well as just looking for app/web history and nothing shows up.

 

[Stanleywinston]

That's a good article for the MS Family, they did add some functionality to it in W10, but it's now where even close to apple. Also, I haven't seen anything on mobile yet that allows parents to view almost real time location updates with almost total sharing between the family members.

Isn't that what the squad watch/people sense app is for? I think it's still in beta as it doesn't seem to have got a stable name yet but it's basically a replacement for the similar functionality that was in groups

 

[wardo5757]

Isn't that what the squad watch/people sense app is for? I think it's still in beta as it doesn't seem to have got a stable name yet but it's basically a replacement for the similar functionality that was in groups

I haven't heard of the squad watch, I'll have to look into it. I hope that MS does create some type of Family sharing that's comparable to IOS's because the latest version of W10 mobile is looking and working great!
For those that don't know, in IOS when you create your family, the entire family shares all purchases, credit cards (the parent has to approve any purchases) and downloads, there is also calendar and real-time location sharing and full control over what your kids can see and install on their phones. I've only been on IOS for about 7 months now, but this family feature is a HUGE selling point for me and my wife.