ms family account screen time limits not working

Anonymous
2019-11-03T16:29:00+00:00

Hi

Despite trying all the suggestions I can find online to fix it screen time limits have not been working for months. The limit is set correctly but Windows appears to ignore it. Family activity reporting shows that the activity duration is greater than the limit set.

Thanks

Mik

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Family and online safety

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Anonymous
2020-09-26T00:35:11+00:00

I too had struggled to get this feature to stick properly to one of my three kids. Two were working fine, one not. All identical hardware, so it was highly irritating one was out of alignment to the others. 

Reinstalled the OS on his PC, still no joy. Removed him from family group, tried everything on the suggestions and they all were useless. 

What I noted was that the time limit that I setup was being ignored but there was still a time limit. Instead of 1.5 hours, it was 4 hours per day. No matter what I set it to, it remained. However, if I turned off limits on his account, instantly the setting on his PC was aware that the limits were removed. When I imposed them once more, the same 4 hour limit (rather than the 1.5 hour limit) was turned back on. 

I concluded that in my case, the time limits set on the website were being ignored or overruled by something on the PC. The feature was linked though, reporting functions worked, and clearly when I switched the time limits off, they applied so no issue with the account itself. 

I searched around a bit more, and saw this bit of advice:

Delete the Parental Control Settings in the following path:

  • On the Start screen, type C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Parental Controls and press Enter.

Delete the folder and files under this location. When the user logs in again, it will force a check with the settings stored online and redownload the settings. 

The reason this didn't get fixed when I did a reinstall of the OS was that I kept files/settings and it never got wiped in the OS re-install. 

As soon as I did this, the correct time limit and schedule was finally applied to my son on his PC. No idea why it got stuck, or why it would never overwrite, but it cleared it. Hopefully future adjustments to the time limits and schedule will work as normal from now on.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-17T19:42:43+00:00

    After several years using this feature, let me explain what I've observed.

    The HOURS schedule of allowed Screen Time, do appear to work well, if your child isn't inside of a game.  However if they are when the time expires it rarely kicks them out.  If they start the PC outside of the schedule, it also works.

    The SCREEN TIME LIMIT does NOT work well.  With a 3 hour limit, my kids regularly use much much more than that.  The issue is there is a Windows Service that is easily stopped which is used by the limits to kick them off.  So unless you set them up as a limited user, WHICH WON"T WORK FOR MOST SOFTWARE, they will have permissions to disable/stop the windows service.

    Here is an example from the summary email this week.  My son is limited to 3 HOURS in an 8 HOUR PERIOD schedule.  But as you can see he is able to use much more, and the sad thing is, Microsoft knows he is exceeding the limit.  The only reason he has less than 3 hours fro Thu is because I went to the web console, and BLOCKED him.

    Hi,

    Thanks for the response. I actually figured out my problem. The account that my daughter was signing in was an Active Directory account joined with Microsoft account. Once I set her up with local user account and signed her into Microsoft account everything started working as it should, although, I'll check for the odd behaviour you described. Which build of Windows 10 do you have?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-18T03:45:57+00:00

    All of our PCs are currently running Windows 10 Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.535).

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-03-14T16:15:41+00:00

    Hi

    I'm on a Mac in my Windows online account via a browser trying to fix my son's screen time limits which haven't been working for a few months. The fix mentioned in various links refers to PC users and Windows 10 so doesn't apply to Mac users! Microsoft rarely acknowledged the existence of Mac users and when they do they provided sub-standard solutions.

    I can't find any support for Mac users. I'm pretty angry about the situation. Microsoft talk a good game about protecting children but when it comes down to it they fail to deliver.

    Trying to get hold of someone at Microsoft is also nearly impossible - it can take days.

    Hey ho, rant over.

    A

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-03-14T19:34:40+00:00

    Whst are you talking about? MS Windows is only on PC.  If you are using Parallels or Dual Booting to get Windows on a Mac you are still running on Windows, so their 

    solutions do apply to you.

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