So I’ve been playing around with Microsoft Parental Controls on our family computer and I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to setup and what a good job it does. I honestly can’t believe it’s a Microsoft product. The settings can apply across multiple machines, and you can see the reports and adjust settings over the web.

Right now I’m limiting our kids to 1/2 hour a day (for “homework” more time can be “bought” by doing chores), limiting the times of day they can use the computer, and filtering out “adult” websites (it’s our 3rd level of filtering, but you can never have enough), and limiting the gaming level allowed for video games (based on the kid’s age).

You get full reports on what websites the kiddos have visited, and what applications they have run. The best part it it’s 100% free and available on Windows Vista (yuck) or newer. If you have kids and computers, this (or an alternative) is a must!