Microsoft Edge is one of the most used internet browsers globally, however, it jumped to the second spot on the ‘top browsers’ list after switching to the Chromium engine, the same that powers Google Chrome. Since its debut, the browser has been able to add several new features for its users with the latest being ‘Kids Mode’ with additional parental controls.
The feature is live for all Microsoft Edge users on Windows and macOS and has been designed to let parents have more control over what their children can access on the internet.
What does Kids Mode offer?
Kids mode has been designed for children under the age of 12 years so that they can browse the internet safely under the supervision of their parents or guardian. Kids mode gives a parent the option to customise the browser restrictions depending on whether the child is between 5 to 8 or 8 to 12 years old.
Both the settings allow Microsoft Edge to set the browser to the highest level of tracking protection as well as activating the Safe Search feature on Bing that filters out adult content, texts, videos, etc. There is also an allowed list that parents can manually add to the list of sites that their kids can access. Microsoft Edge sets a list of the most popular 70 kids websites on the allowed list of websites as default.
Additional security features
As per The Verge, the new Kids mode in Microsoft Edge also disables all of the keyboard shortcuts so that there is no way for the kids to go back to the normal browser. Both the versions of the browser will need the user to feed in their credentials before they can start browsing in any mode.
Apart from features like blocking certain websites, Kids mode also offers several themes created with characters from Disney and Pixar movies. The company is calling this feature a “game-changer” as it makes it easier for a parent to expose their children to the internet.
Google Chrome also comes with a similar feature that deploys certain parental controls when your children are browsing but it still needs a lot of work to be as good as what Microsoft Edge offers.
