Microsoft Family Safety parental control software review

It’s impossible to avoid Microsoft if you’ve got a family full of tech - with laptops, PCs, smartphones and games consoles full of Redmond’s software, they’re everywhere.

But while that might sound all-encompassing, it might not be a bad idea if you need a parental control app. With features that smoothly integrate with your existing tech and a free price, Microsoft Family Safety could be the parental control app that your family needs.

In this article, we’ve broken down this free parental control app's key features, described its user experience and installation experience, and compared it with a few other alternatives, including paid ones, to help you make an informed choice.

• Interested in Microsoft Family Safety? Check out the website here

Microsoft Family Safety: Plans and pricing

There’s not much to say here, because Microsoft Family Safety is free. You don’t have to fork out any cash, you don’t need to investigate different product tiers and their varying features, and you don’t have to mess around hunting for deals or registering for free trials.

When we say free, we don’t mean that it comes free with a Microsoft subscription. In fact, you only need a Microsoft account to use Microsoft Family Safety. No subscription is required.

Microsoft Family Safety: Features

Family Safety runs on Windows, Xbox, Android, and Apple devices, and parents can also use Mac OS computers to access the web dashboard and monitor their children. Bear in mind, though, that you can’t install Family Safety on Mac OS devices used by your children - on Apple’s desktop and laptop OS, it’s a one-way street.

It’s easy to get started with Family Safety - more on that later - and once you’re up and running, the app has a decent set of core parental control features, at least on paper.

Take web filtering, for instance: while this is a core component of any good parental control app and rivals like Qustodio do a tremendous job, on Microsoft Family Safety you’re only able to filter the Microsoft Edge browser.

That might work for Microsoft, which wants to keep people using its own software, but that’s not practical in families where people want to use Chrome, Safari or other browsers. Many alternative browsers are just blocked by the app instead, and it’s possible for parents to block individual websites - and allow favored ones, too.

Frustratingly, Microsoft Family Safety doesn’t let parents see the categories of content it blocks, and users report frequent issues with unsafe websites not being blocked and not being flagged on the parent dashboard.

Family Safety’s screen time functionality is one of its strongest selling points. You can set schedules for your children’s devices, save them easily, and customize them for different days. On Android, parents can set limits on a per-app basis, too.

Even when the allotted screen time for the day is over, your child could request an extension, and you’ll receive a notification about the request. However, mobile screen time only applies to Android devices and isn’t available on iOS.

Family Safety also offers a spending limits feature where you can add money to your child’s Microsoft account, which acts as their allowance or balance for Microsoft Store and Xbox purchases.

However, this doesn’t mean that your child can spend the money unchecked. Every purchase above the balance will require parental approval. Optionally, you can also toggle on the Require approval for every purchase setting, so that everything goes through you regardless of the account balance.

When you turn on spending notifications, you get alerts about the purchases your child makes, money added to the account, or purchase requests approved by other family members.

Elsewhere, app blocking and whitelisting are supported and parents can allow children app access if kids send a request from their phones.

However, a deeper dive by intrepid users online suggests that device screen time limits don’t work particularly well on Android - some reports suggest that children could continue using their devices even when contravening their scheduled limits.

Family Safety used to offer location tracking features along with a Drive Safety mode. However, these functions have now been discontinued.

What’s missing from Family Safety? Sadly, quite a lot. Outside of its web filtering, there’s no social media, messaging app or text message monitoring, and none of the camera and audio features that you’ll find in some more forward-thinking tools.

Microsoft Family Safety: Interface and in-use

Family Safety is very easy to use: install the app, grant some basic permissions and build a family group using people’s Outlook addresses, phone numbers or alternative emails and you’re good to go.

In a nod towards transparency, children can see the restrictions they’re under on their app’s dashboard. On Windows devices, functionality is similar - you just make your children a new account on the device rather than using their phone number.

Once you’re all set up, Family Safety is exceedingly easy to use. The interface is clean and spacious with familiar Microsoft green accents, and everything is laid out well - all of the key options are in obvious places.

One of Microsoft Family Safety’s standout features is its detailed activity reports. When toggled on, you can view various metrics such as which games and apps your family members have been using and for how long.

You can also view which websites your child has been visiting or the terms they’ve been searching. Along with this, you can see detailed daily and weekly details about a child’s screen time.

If you don’t have the time to constantly check the Family Safety app to get updates on your child’s phone usage, you can also opt in to receive weekly emails about your family members’ activities, giving you all the information from the week at a glance.

However, note that Microsoft has also added a consent mechanism when it comes to activity reporting. Kids who are 13 or older have the ability to opt out of sharing usage data with family members. Once they do so, you can’t simply toggle on the setting and would need to regain their consent before doing so.

Microsoft Family Safety: Support

Microsoft Family Safety’s website includes setup guides, FAQs and troubleshooting tips that should solve most common issues, and Microsoft’s busy forum is also available for more specific queries.

In-app support and reporting is available on Android and iOS, and the central Microsoft support website is available if you need to get in touch with Microsoft – although that does mean delving into the support functionality of one of the world’s biggest companies, and that means a likely slow response.

Microsoft Family Safety: The competition

Users may pin down Microsoft Family Safety’s lack of features due to its free nature. However, even free applications like Google Family Link offer a few additional features.

For instance, Google offers real-time location tracking, where you can see your child’s live location at all times using Google’s mapping prowess. Besides this, you can even monitor your child’s device battery status.

Google also allows parents to whitelist calls or texts and approve or block specific numbers. This isn’t a feature category that Microsoft touches at all.

If you’re looking for something premium, you can choose mSpy, which offers some of the most advanced features in the parental control category. There’s extensive keylogging, which captures every keystroke your child types on their devices, including deleted messages.

Next, it comes with social media monitoring, which allows you to see your child’s interactions on platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Instagram, and so on. mSpy also offers extensive call log monitoring, call recording, remote camera, and microphone access.

Unlike Microsoft Family Safety, mSpy comes with geofencing alerts, where you can get notifications whenever your child arrives at or leaves a specific marked location on a map. But if mSpy's $11.67/month pricing is a deal breaker, you can consider more affordable options like Parentaler, HeyPolo, or Bitdefender.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive security package, Aura is another strong option. It combines parental controls with an antivirus, VPN, password manager, and identity protection, making it a more complete digital security solution for the whole family.

Microsoft Family Safety: Final verdict

There are certainly some areas where Microsoft Family Safety fights back. It’s free, for starters, and is easier to use for families that already use the Microsoft ecosystem through PCs, laptops or games consoles alongside smartphones.

It’s easy to use, too, and has accessible and moderately effective filtering, location-tracking, app management and screen time features. The platform did offer location tracking a while back. However, this has now been discontinued, which doesn’t bode well for the platform when compared to peers.

Plus, the iOS app is more limited than the Android version, and its rivals, while not free, are far more capable in every key area. So, if you want basic parental control without spending any money, Family Safety is a great choice.

However, if you’re at all serious about parental control and need features like social media monitoring or location tracking, you’ll have to consider alternatives like mSpy or Parentaler.

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