Setting Up Parental Controls for Games
If you have kids, chances
are, they have a computer—either their own or one shared with the rest
of the family—and, chances are, they play games on that computer. That’s
not a problem when they are being supervised, but few of us have the
time or energy to sit beside our kids for each and every computer
session—and the older the kid, the more likely that a hovering adult
will be seen as an interloper. In other words, for all but the youngest
users, your children will have some unsupervised gaming time at the
computer.
To avoid worrying about whether your 8-year-old is playing Grand Theft Auto
or something equally unsuitable, you can take advantage of the Game
Controls section that enables you to control gaming using ratings and
content descriptors.
Before setting up the
controls, you should select the rating system you want to use. Return to
the Parental Controls window and click the Games Ratings Systems link
to display the Game Rating Systems window shown in Figure 3. Select the rating system you prefer, and then click OK to return to the Parental Controls window.
Click the user you want
to work with to display the User Controls window. Activate the On,
Enforce Current Settings option (if you haven’t done so already), and
then click Games to display the Game Controls window, shown in Figure 4.
The next three sections run through the three methods you can use to control game play.
Turn Off Game Play
If your kids are too
young to play any games, or if you’d prefer that they spend time on the
computer working on more constructive pursuits, you can turn off game
playing altogether. In the Can UserName Play Games? section, select No to prevent the user named UserName
from launching any games from the Games Explorer. If you select Yes
instead, you can use the techniques in the next two sections to control
the games the user can play.
Controlling Games via Ratings and Descriptors
Instead of shutting
off all game play, you’re more likely to want to prevent each user from
playing certain types of games. The easiest way to do that is to use
game ratings and content descriptors. In the Game Controls window, click
Set Game Ratings to display the Game Restrictions window, shown in Figure 5.
Click the rating
option that represents the highest rating the user is allowed to play.
For example, if you’re using the ESRB rating system and you select the
Teen option, the user will be able to play games rated as Early
Childhood, Everyone, Everyone 10+, and Teen. He or she will not be able
to play games rated as Mature or Adults Only.
You can also prevent the user from playing unrated games by selecting the Block Games with No Rating option.
You can also block games
based on content descriptors. If you scroll down in the Game
Restrictions window, you see the complete set of content descriptors,
each with its own check box. For each check box you activate, the user
will not be able to run any games that include that content description,
even if the game has a rating that you allow.
Blocking and Allowing Specific Games
You might want to
fine-tune your game controls by overriding the restrictions you’ve set
up based on ratings and content descriptors. For example, you might have
activated the Block Games with No Rating option, but you have an
unrated game on your system that you want to allow the kids to play.
Similarly, there might be a game that Windows 7 allows based on the
ratings and descriptors, but you’d feel more comfortable blocking access
to the game.
In the Game Controls window, click Block or Allow Specific Games to display the Game Overrides window, shown in Figure 6.
The table displays the title and rating of your installed games, and
shows the current control status—Can Play or Cannot Play. To allow the
user to play a specific game, click Always Allow; to prevent the user
from playing a specific game, click Always Block.
