Vista's parental controls

The earliest reviews of Vista, Microsoft's new operating system due out this month, basically said, don't upgrade – wait till you get a new computer loaded with the new operating system. But that's not the case for families with young kids. "It is not overreaching to say that if you have young children who play computer games or use the Internet you are basically remiss if you do not upgrade to Vista as soon as possible," according to the New York Times. Vista's parental controls aren't perfect, but they're a whole lot better than "clunky" third-party ones, says writer Seth Schiesel. "With Vista, parents for the first time have powerful, easy-to-use, practically unhackable tools to control and monitor just about everything their children do with the home computer, online and off." He adds that they cover Web browsing, file downloading, and instant messaging. Parents do need to keep in mind, though, that even operating-system-level protection is not the total "solution" for intrepid young users who surf at friends' houses, libraries, schools, and other access points that don't have Vista installed, and many won't because upgrading isn't cheap. [Here's my earlier item on Vista.]