Silverlight Application Makes it Easier to Set Up Child Safety Controls and More

Child controls on Windows Smartphone 7 are a big deal to a lot of people. The amount of data, information, and even adult materials that a child could have access to if on an unsecured phone is beyond what most parents are willing to risk.

The Silverlight application makes it easier to view a complete list of the various child controls that one may decide to add to their Windows phone to keep it safe. After all, you never know when your child may get their hands on your phone and see things that you don't want them to have access to.

ListBox Allows Me to Display Child Controls

Usually, I am using ListBox control in my Windows Phone 7 Silverlight applications to display a scrollable list of child controls. ListBox offers UI virtualization, which means that UI is loading ListBox items on demand to increase the performance and reduce memory allocation. 

One of the main keys to that is in using VirtualizingStackPanel as ItemsPanel Template for ListBox control.

Lately in one of my Windows Phone 7 projects I had to replace ListBox with ItemsControl, but ItemsControl does not offer UI virtualization for child items by default, so I had to add the same VirtualizingStackPanel to ItemsPanelTemplate element. 

Also I have modified the Template element to be able to add and access ScrollViewer for ItemsControl.

<ItemsControl>
    <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
        <ItemsPanelTemplate>
            <VirtualizingStackPanel />
        </ItemsPanelTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
    <ItemsControl.Template>
        <ControlTemplate TargetType="ItemsControl">
                <ScrollViewer>
                    <ItemsPresenter/>
                </ScrollViewer>
        </ControlTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.Template>
    <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <!-- place your controls here-->
        </DataTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>

View Everything in One Space

VirtualizingStackPanel makes it easier to see everything on one screen so you can rest assured that nothing is slipping through the cracks. You don't want to leave any open security holes on your phone that your child may figure out a way to exploit. 

Unfortunately, many children are quite good at getting around security features that you have set up for them, and that is why you need to use VirtualizingStackPanel to review everything on your phone and make sure it is locked down.

Now, you need to understand that this feature is not only useful for creating child security locks on your phone, but for many other purposes as well. You might want to breeze through and review other settings on your phone to ensure that you have it all set up optimally. 

After all, you don't want to waste time dealing with a phone that is not set up in the best way possible.

What Type of Child Controls Are Available Via ListBox for Windows 7 Phones?

Concerned parents everywhere will ask themselves what kind of controls they can expect to have over their Windows 7 phone when setting it up for their children to use. 

On the one hand, they know that their children will want to use their phones, and they don’t want to deny them the ability to delight in the technology that so many of the rest of us also enjoy every day. On the other hand, they are concerned parents who worry about what kind of things their children could be exposed to.

The Windows 7 phone has numerous options that allow a parent to filter out things that they don’t necessarily want their children to see. A few of the popular controls that parents often set up for their children include:

• A block on inappropriate/adult websites

• A block on online gaming websites

• A timer that limits how long the child may use the phone

These are all key features of the Windows 7 parental controls that are worth paying attention to. The reason is that children may be exposed to more from the outside world than you ever intended. Not only could they see inappropriate content, but they could get hooked on some of the online games that exist today. 

Those games are meant to be highly addictive by nature so that people will continue playing. However, this also poses a risk to children who may get exposed to too many stimuli from these games too early in their life. If that happens, then it may not be easy to peel away from those games. 

You certainly don’t want to take a risk like that with your child, and that is why you need to put a limit on the amount of time that they are able to view your screen on your phone. 

They need to take some time away from those screens in order to develop as people, and it is a lot better to use a program that will automatically cut them off from the online games that just want them to keep playing.

How Do You Get Around Child Locks for Yourself?

The other thing to keep in mind when using the software programs that are available to you for creating child locks on your phone is that you will need to circumvent those locks for yourself. 

You will still want access to the websites that you want to go to when your child doesn’t have your phone. Thus, you should make sure you are well-versed in how the Silverlight application works before you go to install it on your phone.

Many people jump the gun too fast and try to get a program like this on their phone because they are so worried about their children being on the Internet and what it could mean for their safety. 

It is noble that people want to keep their children safe, but it is also responsible to want to make sure your phone is protected from the possibility of not having access to the full Internet that you may require at some point.

You can, and should, install a backup password that you can use to get around any and all child locks that you put in place. Doing so will put you in the best position to get around the child lock and temporarily disable it while you use your phone as you normally would. 

The only thing to keep in mind is that you will need to put the child locks back on your phone once you are done using it and before you give it to your child. Once the locks are disabled, they won’t go back up unless you instruct them to do so via your phone.

Many people have used child locks to keep their children from being exposed to material that they don’t want them to see too early in life. You may feel the same way, and it may be time for you to take direct action to ensure that your children are subjected to material that you wholeheartedly disagree with them seeing.