How to .......Toddler Proof a PC

mercman1969

Our 4 year old is having a computer for Christmas as that is what she wants...she is quite good at using them as she uses them at school

She obviously doesnt require the use of everything so how would I best achieve securing it so i dont have to spend all my time fixing it

I imagine she will use

Word
Internet....cbeebies / nickjnr /


Thanks

BillScarab

Firstly set her account up as a standard user and a seperate admin account for you. That will stop her making changes to the system.

Then, assuming it's Windows 7 set up the parental controls to restrict what websites and programs she can use. I think you can also set time limits so she can only use it at certain times of the day.

If you do the above when she first uses it she will get a lot of pop ups asking for you to authorise whatever she is trying to access but once you doen that the first time it won't ask again. So after a little while it will settle down and she'll be able to use it without bothering you.

penrhyn

I got money in the meter and a two bar heater.

irishesman

If not windows 7, you might like to look at K9 software. Just google it, I've installed it on two home computers and it allows you to specify security levels, logon times etc. Seems good and is free
:beer:

dizziblonde

Oh and right click on the taskbar and lock it into position - I seem to spend half every ICT lesson fishing them from the sides of the screen or the top or wherever the kids have dragged them to. Unless you've got an exceptional kid (a friend's little brother managed to make it into the bios and change and save settings aged about 3) - limiting a user account and inbuilt parental controls should be enough to prevent most stuff (although with the average 4 year old the desktop icons are going to end up all over the shop).