Microsoft to offer free parental Web monitoring

Microsoft Corp. said on Monday it 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 monitoring of children online has become a hot-button subject due to a nationwide 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 Inc. and Yahoo Inc. for Internet advertising dollars.

....Apparently they are trying to compete with Google and Yahoo!. Well, it's still benefits us(i mean the parents).

The company aims to simplify the process by allowing a parent, or administrator, to monitor every family member's Web activities within Windows Live. The service is only available for certain versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and will be compatible with the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Via Yahoo! News