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‘Creepy’ Windows 10 may inform parents of LGBT kids seeking help

Pink News reports on the potential issue, found after some testing of the Activity Reports feature. It expands on the Parental Controls of previous versions of Windows to allow parents to monitor their child’s usage on the computer and get weekly digests of the websites they visit.
Activity Reports is easy to set up on a computer. It works with the new Child user account type and can be controlled by any parent with access to the device.
It enables the setting of time limits for Internet access and blocking of specific applications. Although these features should protect children, Pink News notes that the activity reports could expose worried LGBT kids to parents.
Using a fictitious child account, the site visited gay news and support websites BGIOK, Stonewall and Pink News. The searches were logged and displayed to the parent account in the weekly activity report, clearly stating the name of the website. Gay porn sites were automatically blocked and highlighted at the top of the report.
The only indication to the child that their parents could see their usage was a notification when the browsing session begun. It said that activity could be monitored but was not followed by any further alerts.
Using InPrivate browsing in Microsoft Edge – or equivalent anonymous modes in other browsers – did not prevent the data collection. Clearing Internet history still resulted in the sites being listed in the activity report.
The evidence presented to the parents would be sufficient to expose the child, especially if the activity continued. Many of the flagged sites were specifically designed to help teens to come out with their sexuality and make them feel supported.
There are fears that Activity Reports could also expose children with other issues that they may not want their parents to know about. Searching for confidential or sensitive topics such as anti-bullying advice or support with stress or medical issues would still get fed back to the parent.
Star Trek actor and LGBT activist George Takei has expressed concern about the implications of the feature. He notes that Windows 10 reporting searches for help on dealing with abusive parents could seriously aggravate domestic situations, hardly making it the innocent helper it is meant to be.
The only way for a child to covertly browse is to obtain their own Windows 10 device and insist they use a Standard or Administrator user account, something that many parents are unlikely to allow. Teens are likely to feel uncomfortable knowing their parents can see the contents of their search results; the possibility of their computer revealing their sexuality or private concerns which they are seeking confidential advice on is another thing altogether.
Campaigners are calling on Microsoft to create some kind of whitelist of certified “safe” support sites and agencies that are frequented by kids looking for help on sensitive topics. Websites included in the whitelist would be excluded from Activity Reports, returning some degree of privacy to the children who may need it if coming from households not necessarily accepting of the topics and interests that the feature could reveal.

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