Remove parental control and update age

Question

hello -

My brother passed and I received his laptop. I had to scrub the computer to gain access. For some reason the laptop is setup up with Family Safety controls. I've tried to remove them by updating my birthdate (shows I'm 6 years old) but I can't edit the info. I've gone to each link, but I come back around to the same steps and nothing works. I'm listed as the organizer, but I can't get rid of the control. I tried to access google, i'm blocked, Not sure what else to do. I went to microsoft edge to access cash.app.com and i'm blocked.

Please advise. I need the parental controls removed.

Answer 1

Hello,

Disabling Family Safety features requires the permissions of the organizer. If you do not know the organizer’s account information, you cannot remove the restrictions on the child account. In addition, if the child is a minor and the parent has not provided consent, the parent’s account must give approval. Please refer to the section “This account requires parental consent” in the support article below.

How to change a birth date on a Microsoft account

If you received the PC from someone else, please back up any necessary data and reset Windows to its factory state from the recovery environment. After that, you can sign in with a newly created Microsoft account and use the PC without any issues.

Please refer to the support article below for instructions on using the recovery environment.

Reset your PC

Answer 2

Because the account on the laptop is being treated as a child and has Microsoft Family Safety restrictions, and changing the birthdate is not working, use the supported Family Safety paths to remove or reset those controls.

Follow these steps in order:

1. Confirm whether the account is in a Family group
   1. On any device with a browser, go to https://account.microsoft.com/family and sign in with the Microsoft account that is signed in on the laptop.
   2. If a family group appears and the account is listed as an adult organizer, it is part of a Family group. If no family members appear, the device may still have old Family Safety settings cached.
2. If the account is in a Family group as an adult As an adult organizer, Family Safety limits should not be enforced on that account itself. If they are, perform a Family Safety “refresh” on the device:
   1. On the laptop, press Windows key + R.
   2. Type cmd and select OK.
   3. In the Command Prompt window, type or paste:

            schtasks /run /tn "Microsoft\Windows\Shell\FamilySafetyRefreshTask"
      

      then press Enter.
   4. Restart the laptop.
   5. Test access to Google and other sites again in Microsoft Edge.
3. If the account is not in any Family group but restrictions still apply The device may still have Family Safety policies from a previous configuration. Run the same reset on the affected device:
   1. Press Windows key + R.
   2. Type cmd and select OK.
   3. Run:

            schtasks /run /tn "Microsoft\Windows\Shell\FamilySafetyRefreshTask"
      

   4. Restart the laptop.
4. If the account is being treated as a child (birthdate shows 6 years old) and cannot be edited
   1. If the account is marked as a child in a Family group, only an adult organizer who originally granted consent can manage or remove that child’s consent and restrictions. That adult must:
      • Go to https://account.live.com/unmanagekid.aspx (Manage permissions) and remove consent for the child account.
      • Then go to https://account.microsoft.com/family, select the child, and choose Remove from family group.
   2. If the birthdate is wrong and the account is above statutory age but still treated as a child, follow the guidance under I’m an adult not a child in the Family Safety troubleshooting article and the steps in How to change a birth date on a Microsoft account under I’m an adult, but Microsoft thinks I’m a child.
5. If the account truly is a child account and cannot be converted Child accounts cannot change their birthdate to bypass restrictions. In that case, an adult organizer must adjust or remove the restrictions from their own organizer account at https://account.microsoft.com/family (for example, by turning off content filters and screen time limits for that child account), or remove the child account from the Family group entirely.

If none of the above works and the account that originally granted parental consent is unavailable, the appropriate adult or guardian should attempt to recover that adult account using the account recovery link in the parental consent documentation, then remove consent and Family group membership from there.

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References:

• Family Safety settings enforced on adults
• Troubleshooting Microsoft Family Safety
• Managing parental consent
• Set up Microsoft Family Safety
• Fix family activity reporting for Windows
• how to change date of birth child to adult - Microsoft Q&A
• How do I stop supervising my child in Family Link? - Microsoft Q&A