Google Chrome OS to Offer Robust Parental Controls with ‘Supervised Users’ Feature
Worried about what your kids are doing online with their Chromebooks? Your only option at this point is to hover their shoulders each and every time they fire it up, but starting soon, you'll be able to implement certain restrictions as a "Supervised User." By allowing for multiple accounts, Google is basically baking in parental controls.
We all know that using parental controls isn't a substitute for good parenting or physically checking up on your child's online behavior from time to time, but it's a starting point, and one that's badly needed considering how popular Chromebooks are becoming.
The Supervised Users feature just entered Google's Beta Channel, which means a stable release isn't far behind. As a manager (parent) of a Supervised User (child), you can view the user's browsing history, block specific sites, and approve access requests. The neat thing about this is you don't have to be physically present to perform any of these actions. They're all accessible from a web dashboard on any browser at chrome.com/manage.
This is just a starting point and it's intended to help you share Chromebooks with everyone in the family. In a blog post on the subject, Google software engineer Pam Greene made it clear that this is an early version and that expanded features will come in time, including ones based on user feedback.
We all know that using parental controls isn't a substitute for good parenting or physically checking up on your child's online behavior from time to time, but it's a starting point, and one that's badly needed considering how popular Chromebooks are becoming.
The Supervised Users feature just entered Google's Beta Channel, which means a stable release isn't far behind. As a manager (parent) of a Supervised User (child), you can view the user's browsing history, block specific sites, and approve access requests. The neat thing about this is you don't have to be physically present to perform any of these actions. They're all accessible from a web dashboard on any browser at chrome.com/manage.
This is just a starting point and it's intended to help you share Chromebooks with everyone in the family. In a blog post on the subject, Google software engineer Pam Greene made it clear that this is an early version and that expanded features will come in time, including ones based on user feedback.
