Monitor Kids Browsing with Chrome’s Supervised User Account

Google’s latest browser update, Chrome 32 has brought in some handy new improvements to the browser. One feature that I particularly like is Tab Indicators, the one that indicates when a “noisy tab” suddenly starts playing a video or music (by displaying a small speaker icon in the tab). However, in this post, I want to talk about one other feature that should come in handy when you’ve got the kids operating the PC. Its called Supervised Users and its currently in beta.

Basically what you do in this feature is create a supervised user account for your child, monitor the child’s browsing history (if need be), block web sites that you don’t want your child to visit and manage permissions for such blocked websites.

Monitoring your child’s activity is certainly not the most pleasant task, but a little supervision goes a long way in protecting your child. Here’s how you can give this beta product a try.

How to Create a Supervised User Account

When you set up a supervised account, you can:

• Allow or block certain websites
• Review websites that have been visited
• Adjust user settings for that account
• Turn off Guest mode
• Prevent the creation of new profiles

To create an account for your child:

1. Open your Chrome browser and login with your Gmail credentials.

2. Click the Settings icon and then click Settings.

3. Scroll down to the Users section and click Add New User.

4. In the Create user pop up window, you can add your child’s name, select an avatar, and then tick the option that states that the person using the account is under supervision.

Once you have created the account, you can manage the settings of the newly created account by heading over to www.chrome.com/manage. You can block sites, lock or unlock the SafeSearch feature and manage other settings of the supervised user.

One point to keep in mind about supervised user accounts is that they apply only to the Chrome account on the particular device you are creating. They will not get synced on other devices that you login to.

To Determine What Supervised Users Can See:

By default, your kids can go to any website that they want. You can change what they can see online by doing the following:

1. Go to the Supervised Users Dashboard and in the Permissions section.

2. Click Manage.

3. In the Allow section, check All of the web or Only approved sites.

If you want to block certain websites, insert * before the site name. For example, *.google.com or www.google.*.
You need to do this for every site including country and other sub domains such as calendar.google.com.

Parental control in today’s free-for-all environment may be a tough task to accomplish, and browser monitoring may be a small step in that direction, but hopefully it will make a difference.

For more help and guidance on creating and managing a supervised account, click here.

What do you think of the feature? Let us know in the comments.