Windows’ parental controls work through Microsoft Family Safety. You create a family group with Microsoft accounts, add your child, and manage their limits from the web or the Family Safety app on your phone. Settings follow the child’s account on every Windows PC, Xbox and Android device where they sign in.
1. Create a child account
- On the PC: Settings → Accounts → Family (Windows 11) or Family & other users (Windows 10).
- Click Add someone and create an account for your child (or enter their existing Microsoft account email).
- Choose Member (not Organizer).
- Have the child sign in once on the PC to finish setup.
The child must use their own account — controls don’t apply to a shared or parent account. Make sure the child’s account is a standard user, not an administrator, so they can’t remove the restrictions.
2. Open Family Safety
Go to family.microsoft.com (or install the Microsoft Family Safety app) and sign in with your organizer account. Select your child to see their settings.
3. Screen time
- Set daily limits for each day of the week.
- Define allowed time ranges (e.g. 7:00–20:00 on school days).
- Apply one schedule to all devices or set limits per device (Windows, Xbox).
When time runs out, the child sees a prompt and can request more — you approve or decline from the app.
4. App and game limits
- Set time limits for specific apps and games (e.g. one hour of a game per day).
- Block apps entirely.
- Set an age rating for content from the Microsoft Store; anything above it needs your approval.
5. Web and search filtering
- Turn on Filter inappropriate websites and searches. This enforces SafeSearch in Bing and blocks adult content.
- Add always allowed and always blocked sites.
- Optionally allow only listed websites for younger children.
Important: web filtering works in Microsoft Edge. To prevent workarounds, block other browsers under app limits (Family Safety may do this automatically when filtering is on).
6. Spending
Add money to the child’s account and require approval for purchases, or block purchases entirely. You’ll get a notification for each request.
7. Activity reports
Turn on activity reporting to receive weekly email summaries: screen time, apps used, websites visited and searches (in Edge). Talk with older children about what’s being reported — transparency works better than secret monitoring.
8. Add network-level filtering
Family Safety controls Windows devices with the child’s account. For phones, consoles and other devices on your home network, add DNS filtering at the router:
- Family-filtering DNS services (for example, the family resolvers offered by Cloudflare, CleanBrowsing or OpenDNS) block adult content for every device that uses them.
- Set the DNS servers in your router’s settings so all devices use them.
Tech-savvy households sometimes run their own filtering DNS (such as Pi-hole or AdGuard Home) at home or on a small VPS combined with a WireGuard VPN for devices away from home. If you self-host, secure the server carefully — see protecting a VPS from port scans.
Troubleshooting
- Limits not applying: the child is signed in with a different account, the device isn’t linked to the family group, or Windows is offline (settings sync when it reconnects).
- Child can bypass filters: check they’re not an administrator, and block other browsers.
- “Ask a parent” requests not arriving: make sure notifications are enabled in the Family Safety app.
Summary
Use a separate standard child account, manage screen time, apps and web filtering in Microsoft Family Safety, and add DNS filtering for the rest of the home network. Review settings as children grow — and keep the conversation open. Related Windows guides: customizing the taskbar and Snipping Tool.