Parental controls, platform by platform
Where the settings live, what they do, and what they can't do. Last checked 23 August 2026.
Every platform gives you something. None of them gives you everything.
Each one was designed around a different idea of what a parent needs — some restrict by age
rating, some by individual game, some by device and some by account. This page describes what
each actually offers so you can set up the one you already own. It is not a ranking, and we
have no stake in which console you have.
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app (iOS/Android), or System Settings on the console
Time
A daily play-time limit and a bedtime. When the time is up the console can alarm, or suspend the software outright.
Which games
Restricted by age rating. You pick a restriction level and everything above it is blocked. You can add an exception to allow a specific game through.
Purchases
eShop purchases can be restricted.
Communication
Posting to social media and in-game communication can be switched off.
Settings live on
The console. A second Switch is a second setup.
Worth knowing: the exception list only works one way — you can let a specific game through, but there is no way to block one game that its age rating already permits. If you want a single title gone, the lever is the age level, which affects everything at that rating.
Xbox
Xbox Family Settings app, or your Microsoft account family group on the web
Time
Screen-time limits per day, and you can set different amounts for different days.
Which games
Both — an age-rating filter, and the ability to block an individual title while leaving everything else playable. we've tested this
Purchases
Ask-to-buy: the child requests, you approve or decline.
Communication
Control who they can talk to, and whether they can play with people outside Xbox.
Settings live on
The child's Microsoft account — they apply on any Xbox or Windows PC they sign in to.
Worth knowing: because the controls follow the account rather than the box, they also reach the same child's Windows PC. That is useful, and it means a change you make affects more than the console in the living room.
PlayStation
Family Management in your PlayStation account, on console or on the web
Time
Play-time limits, set per day of the week, with a choice of notifying the child or logging them out.
Which games
Restricted by age level, with per-title exceptions on top.
Purchases
A monthly spending limit on the child's wallet.
Communication
Messaging and user-generated content can be restricted.
Settings live on
The child's PSN account.
Worth knowing: like Nintendo, the age level does the heavy lifting. Blocking one game that sits inside an age level you have already allowed is not something the system is built to do.
Steam
Steam Family settings, from the Steam client
Time
Play-time limits for a child account.
Which games
You choose which titles in the library the child can open — an allow-list you control directly.
Purchases
The store and in-game purchasing can be closed off behind a PIN.
Communication
Friends, chat and community content can be restricted.
Settings live on
The child's Steam account.
Worth knowing: Steam only governs games bought through Steam. A game installed from anywhere else on the same PC is outside it entirely — see the next section.
Windows PC
Microsoft Family Safety, plus whatever each store provides
Time
Microsoft Family Safety can limit time on the PC itself, and time in specific apps.
Which games
Depends entirely where the game came from. A game bought direct from its maker — Minecraft Java, itch.io, many launchers — has no parental layer of its own.
Purchases
Store-dependent. Downloads and mods are not purchases at all.
Communication
Handled inside each game, not by Windows.
Settings live on
A mix — the Windows sign-in, plus each store separately.
Worth knowing: this is the gap most parents don't expect. A PC is not one system with one set of controls; it is several stores and several launchers, each with its own rules, and some games sit outside all of them.
Android
Google Family Link
Time
A daily limit for the device, plus limits on individual apps, and a bedtime.
Which games
Individual apps can be blocked, and new installs can require your approval.
Purchases
Purchases and in-app spending can require approval.
Communication
Handled inside each app, not by Family Link.
Settings live on
The child's Google account, on the devices they sign in to.
Worth knowing: per-app time limits are unusually granular here — closer to what most parents picture than what the consoles offer.
The thing that catches people out
Every set of controls above stops at the edge of its own platform. A limit on the Switch does
nothing about the iPad; an Xbox bedtime says nothing about the PC. Children work this out quickly,
and the time simply moves to whichever screen isn't governed.
That gap is the reason Balanced Play exists — one shared daily budget that every linked platform
draws from, so time saved on one device is not time gained on another. But the controls on this
page are worth setting up regardless of whether you ever use us; they are yours, they are free,
and most of them take about five minutes.
Platforms change these settings without much announcement. Everything here was checked on
23 August 2026, and the ones marked
we've tested this are ones we have
confirmed ourselves against a live account rather than read in documentation. If you find something
on this page that no longer matches what you see, please tell us at
info@getbalancedplay.com and we will correct it.