If you have children at home who play video games, you will surely be concerned when it comes to keeping track of what kind of games they enjoy, how much time they spend in front of the screen, what other apps they use and who they talk to. Well, you should know that there are applications and functions that let you know all that, so we are going to teach you how to control the little ones in their Xbox.
Xbox parental controls
Microsoft consoles offer a complete parental control system that will allow you to set up a perfectly safe and controlled environment for minors. And the most interesting of all is that its administration is quite simple, since we will only have to carry out a few simple steps to have everything configured.
These are all the steps you need to complete to have a safe profile for your children thanks to Microsoft parental control tools:
- Create a family group.
- Create profiles for minors.
- Establish hours and restrictions of use.
Completing each of those three steps, you will have everything tied to possible access to inappropriate content, as well as periodic reports with the total time spent in front of the screen. It will even be possible to manage all the contacts and friendships that are added through their many games with the games they use, especially in the case of multiplayer.
Then We leave you a video from Microsoft in which you can see exactly all those functions that parental control tools provide:
How do you configure parental control?
To create a controlled environment on Xbox Seris X|S, Xbox One, and PC You must use the Xbox Family Settings application from your mobile phone, to be able to access the account settings. We must warn you that it is a very simple app and that it will save you from having to use a computer. By quickly looking at the mobile, we will be able to know exactly what our children are doing with the consoles or the Windows PC.
Although it is possible to configure everything through the smartphone, obviously we also have this resource at hand from the official website.
The application is available on both Android and iOS, so we leave you the download links below so you can get the version compatible with your device:
Once you have it installed, you will have to log in with the account of the parent or guardian who will manage the Family Group. It must be a registered Microsoft account, so use yours to sign in to any of your Xbox or Windows PC (11 or 10). If you don't have one and you're new, it's time to create a new one. You can do it from the welcome screen of the application.
With the account already created and signed in to the Xbox Family Settings app, it's time to create the Family Group. The application will invite you to add a minor and to do so you will have two options:
- Invite an already created account: If the minor already has a user profile and logs in with it on Xbox, you must choose the option to invite someone to send the request to their account inbox.
- Create account for a minor: If the minor does not yet have their own profile, it is time to create one. The process will be identical to registering a normal account, so you will have to use an email (or create a new one) and choose a username.
What can be done with parental control?
With the account already created and added to the family group, it is time to establish the parameters that will allow you to be calm regarding the use that the little one can give to the console. These are the functions that can be limited within Xbox Family Settings:
- Limit the type of games they can enjoy: Create filters by recommended age (PEGI) so that they cannot install titles for people over 18 years of age, or other age ranges that are out of reach of your children.
- Set device usage times: Determines what and how many hours you can use the console.
- Set usage times for apps and games: Choose what and how many hours you can enjoy a specific game or application. For example, if we want it to spend no more than two hours playing and watching Netflix for as many hours, we can set it to that limit or raise or lower it as we want.
- Screen time notifications: You can inform through the screen of the console or the computer about how much time of use it has left.
- Activity reports: Review and know the report of all the activity thanks to an email that will arrive in your inbox with the monthly summary.
- accept purchases: Are you afraid of a possible improper purchase? Forces the system to require your approval (express confirmation) before completing any transaction within the Microsoft Store.
- Set pay: You can add periodic amounts of money as a balance that will be added to your account so that you can make purchases in the Microsoft Store.
- Shopping record: Check the history of purchases and orders through the Microsoft Store.
- Accept incoming friend requests: You will be able to choose who becomes friends with your child and who does not, to know exactly with whom they are maintaining communications within the game games or in the chats enabled on each platform. And in case of toxicity problems with other profiles, turn to the tools that Microsoft has developed to report intimidating and inappropriate behavior.
In this way, the application Xbox Family Settings it will become your control center to manage all the profiles you need and you will be able to know what they are doing at all times, control which games they spend all those hours in front of the screen and, of course, block access to Minecraft, Fortnite or FIFA (for example) if they have not fulfilled their homework or school grades.
Remember that this application is available and will continue to receive new functions so that we can continue to limit the use of the console or PC as we need, and we can know at all times how much the little ones in the house are playing and what.