Parental controls: workaround to disable IE using Intune

[CSMR250]

WP8.1 has extremely limited parental controls, unlike the desktop and tablet versions of Windows. In family safety, there are app download restrictions. IE cannot be filtered or disabled. (There is also kids corner and apps corner but these are not really serious.)

I hope they fix this in WP10 which should be very easy for them given WP/Win integration and the fact that WP is built in a secure sandboxed way.

But for I found a workaround by using Intune, which may interest people who need to lock down a Windows Phone now before Microsoft gets round to extending parental controls to WP. The business controls of WP are good. Sign up for Intune with 1 account (free trial for 1 month, then paid afterwards).

To disable IE, add policy ->common mobile device settings->mobile device security policy->Browser->Allow web browser->no. You can also disable access to the store, prevent the user from deregistring from Intune and other things. Then type in the given address as a business account on the phone and the controls will go across.

You don't get the ability to filter internet, and you have to pay $6/user/month to use this, but it may be worth it to some people. In not too many months WP10 will come and hopefully we can switch to regular parental controls then.

 

[dKp1977]

Nice workaround.
You can use Family Safety to restrict IE though. There's sort of a blacklist feature that allows you to define sites which the child account is not permitted to visit.
A whitelist approach would be better though imho.