Microsoft Family - Child can remove themselves from the family

Anonymous
2020-01-05T10:56:06+00:00

I have setup Microsoft Family with my children added as child accounts.

My children can login to their accounts at family.microsoft.com and simply click the link "Leave family group" and they are removed from the group and from any screen time limits etc.

This seems like a serious issue as it negates the point of setting any restrictions if it is this easy to circumvent them.

Please advise if there are additional settings required to prevent children from removing themselves from the family group.

I've checked the DOB for each child and that is correct.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Family and online safety

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-25T16:03:05+00:00

    This is a completely fixable issue. To everyone wondering, just set the account you don't want to get removed to an age below 13, and Microsoft will automatically remove the "Leave Family Group" button

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-08T21:15:57+00:00

    Just received the following email from Microsoft that due to privacy laws, my soon to be 13 year old son is now old enough to make his own decisions online and it’s basically none of our business. It appears this is due to COPPA, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which only protects children under 13 because they are particularly vulnerable to marketers and unaware of privacy and safety issues. COPPA is meant to give parents control of online collection of info of kids under 13. Still, don’t see why Microsoft wouldn’t allow account users to maintain settings and restrictions of content for teens under family group. Other apps and software allow parental controls and monitoring.

    Activity reporting
    They can turn off your ability to see their activity on Windows 10 and Xbox One devices, or Android devices running Microsoft Launcher.
    <br> ---
    Device health
    They can turn off your ability to see their device and check on updates, hard drive usage, or safety settings like firewall and anti-virus protection.
    <br> ---
    Find your child
    They can stop sharing their location through their Windows 10 phone or Android device running Microsoft Launcher.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-09-25T15:42:25+00:00

    My boy found a way to bypass the entire process. Not exactly sure of the details, but a little searching shows that it involves killing the monitoring process.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T02:14:19+00:00

    Works great until he meets up with a pedophile that will buy his games for him and you cant see/track that since your son is no longer in your family.

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