Microsoft plans to include a free service to help parents control and monitor what their children are doing online in its upcoming Windows Live offering of web services, the company said today.
The monitoring of children online has become a hot-button subject due to a string of cases involving adult sexual predators using virtual-communities on the internet like MySpace.com to meet child victims.
Windows Live is part of Microsoft's strategy to consolidate a range of web services - e-mail, instant messaging, online PC security and blogs - to compete with Google and Yahoo internet advertising dollars.
Windows Live is being tested now and will launch sometime in the second half of 2006.
Microsoft plans to roll out Windows Live Family Safety Settings in the summer, which will allow parents to filter Web sites and receive reports to see what their children are doing online.
The company also plans to eventually allow parents to control who communicates with their children over e-mail, instant messaging and in their blogs.