Keep track of your kids and what they're doing on the console by setting up Xbox parental controls.
If you've bought an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S for the kids in your house, you'll of course want them to have fun – but you'll also want to set limits on what they can do on the console, especially if they're younger kids.
These consoles are built with all the necessary options to add child profiles and manage what those profiles can do. All of these features are tied to a larger Microsoft Family Safety feature that works across multiple devices and is free to use as part of your existing Microsoft (and Xbox) account.
The level of detail you can enter, down to which websites your child can view, is impressive. If you don't want to configure each option individually, there are preset profiles to choose from.
Setting Up Microsoft Family Safety
Before you can manage parental controls on Xbox, you must tell Microsoft who is in your family. These family settings are then applied to all Microsoft products you use, including Windows and Office.
First, you need to sign in to your Microsoft account page on the web. (Although you can do this on your console, it's much easier to do on a computer with mouse and keyboard access).
From the account page:
- Click View your family.
- Select Add family member to add a new one. Families can have a maximum of six people.
- Each child will need their own Microsoft account to sign in. If you haven't created an account before, select Create account; otherwise, enter login credentials.
- When you create or sign in to an account for your child, it will appear on your family dashboard. Click the three dots in the top right corner of any profile to open a menu that lets you change the profile picture and see recent activity. Select Go to overview to set parental controls.
The options here apply to all devices your child is signed in to using their Microsoft account, including phones, laptops, and consoles. However, the options for Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S do not appear until you connect a console.
- From your own user account on Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, open the Settings screen by selecting the gear icon at the top of the home screen.
- Select Account > Family settings.
- Select Manage family members, select your child, then select Add to this Xbox console.
- Enter the password for the child's account.
You will then be prompted to sign in to your own account. You can enter your login credentials into the Xbox console or have an email sent to your phone or laptop to sign in to these devices.
Parental controls for Xbox become active after your child is added. Some of these can be managed through the console, while others can be set up via the Family Safety page on the webpage we reviewed earlier, or the Microsoft Family Safety apps for Android or iOS.
It's a good idea to set a PIN for your user account on Xbox to prevent your child from easily switching user accounts. To do this:
- Open Settings.
- Select Account > Sign-in, security & PIN.
Managing parental controls on Xbox
To edit parental controls directly on Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S:
- Open Settings using the gear icon at the top of the home screen.
- Select Account > Family settings > Manage family members.
Select your child from the list. You will then see a list of options you can choose from. - Select Access to content to set age limits on games, movies, and other content on Xbox.
- Select Web filtering to manage what your child can access through the Xbox web browser – you can set a specific list of allowed sites if needed.
- To filter or completely block content from the Xbox built-in messaging service, select Privacy and online safety > Message security.
- To find most parental controls, select Privacy & online safety > Xbox privacy.
When you enter the Xbox privacy menu, if you're in a hurry, you can choose from some of the default settings Microsoft has created: child, teen, or adult. When you select any of these options, the restrictions associated with them are listed on the right.
Select View details and customize to manage these restrictions in more detail. This opens another list of options.
- Online status and history includes settings such as who else can see when your child is online and what they're playing.
- The profile includes controls for who can see your child's real name and profile picture.
- Friends and clubs let you set whether your child can add friends and join clubs on their Xbox console.
- Communication and multiplayer includes voice and text communication with others and access to multiplayer games.
- Game content controls whether screenshots can be shared and live streams can be started from this account.
- Off-Xbox sharing lets you set options for sharing content elsewhere, such as social media networks.
- The purchase and download covers the privileges your child has to purchase games and content on the console.
Manage parental controls on the web or in the app
- On the web, click the three dots next to your child's profile.
- Go to Overview > Screen time.
- Tap the child's profile, then tap Manage next to Screen time.
The options are pretty simple. You can separate them by device (for example, Xbox and Windows PC) or have the same screen time limits apply on each platform. In addition to total hours of screen time, you can also set specific times when a device is unavailable, and these settings can be different on different days if needed. You can also manually lock and unlock access to certain devices.
The website and apps provide you with reports on your child's activity, including how much time your child spends playing games and the purchases they make. The same parental controls available on Xbox can be found on the web and in apps, and include age ratings for games and limits on certain sites that may or may not be accessible via a browser.
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