Ask A Question
Featured Image for Enjoy Games Safely With Parental Controls

Modern video-game consoles provide simple ways for families to take control and get the most out of the games they play. Parental controls enable you to limit games based on age rating as well as how long they are played for.

These controls work with the PEGI age rating symbols and descriptor icons, to help you keep track and control the games that are played. Setting these up not only grants parents a greater degree of control but provides families an opportunity to agree together how to get the most out of the games they play. This can then be implemented on each system automatically.

For example, you may wish to specify which PEGI rated games can be played in your family. Setting up Parental Controls lets you select this for different players and won't let them access older games without a password.

Setting up these parental controls differs for each system and is often updated after a particular console has been released. It is therefore important that you update your hardware with the latest updates, by connecting to the internet via your home wireless or wired connection.

Detailed advice for setting this up is listed below. Microsoft have recently created Parent Controls videos on Xbox One and Xbox 360:

The following links offer guidance to set-up family settings on different systems:

Avatar for Andrew Robertson
Andrew Robertson
Andy Robertson is the editor of AskAboutGames and has written for national press and broadcast about video games and families for over 15 years. He has just published the Taming Gaming book with its Family Video Game Database.