Over on the Windows Phone Blog, Jac Fitzgerald gave a brief instructional on establishing some Parental Controls for your kid on the Windows Phone. You can even go through the process before making the Windows Phone purchase. We will break down the essentials below, but be sure to check out the full post if necessary.
To begin, make a child account for your…well, child. This is assuming the involved child doesn’t already have a Hotmail, Zune, or Xbox account. To start creating an account for the child click here. Through the account creation process you will enter the child’s date of birth, at which point Microsoft uses that to designate the type of account created; child (12 or younger) or teen (13 to 17 years old). You will then be asked to sign in to acknowledge the child account creation. Once the child account is set up, use it in the intial Windows Phone setup or the first time the child uses the marketplace.
From there, you can use Zune.net and Xbox.com to respectfully control the content the child can access and download. You can block purchases and explicit content through Zune.net, and Xbox.com will allow or deny both online gameplay and friend requests.
It’s always great to have everyone in the family with their own Windows Phone, be safe about it though kids!
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