Xbox Family Settings Guide: How To Install, Setup and Monitor Child Accounts

Gaming may well be a predominately adults pastime, but gaming consoles and software are designed to be accessible and used by multiple people in a household, namely families of varying age groups.

With the introduction of the new Xbox Family Settings app, parents and households can now control almost every element of a child’s Xbox account, from who they can interact with, what games they can play, and even for how long they play for.

In this guide we’ll cover all of the basics to help you setup the Xbox Family Settings app, and strengthen the safety and wellbeing of those using the family Xbox.

How To Install & Setup The Xbox Family Settings app

1. Install the “Xbox Family Settings” app via your device’s app store. On Apple devices, via the App Store, and on Android devices, via the Play Store.
2. Once downloaded and installed on your device, opening the Xbox Family Settings app for the first time will prompt you to sign in to your Xbox account.
   • This account is the account you use as your primary account on your Xbox account. It’s the account that has your Gamertag attached to it. It’s not the account that your child uses.
   • If you don’t have an Xbox account, create one and ensure your DOB is accurate.

1. Once you’re signed in, click the green circle aside your name in the top right corner.

1. On the next screen you can choose to either:
   • “Create A Child Account” = Create a brand new Xbox account for your child, and link it to your Family account, or;
   • “Invite Someone” = Invite either an already existing child account, or another adult account from within your family (ie. another adult you trust to be able to amend the settings). You’ll need to invite the person via their email account, attached to their Xbox account
   • If you “Invite” someone, you will need to choose whether they are a “Member” (has minimal control, ie. the younger they are the less control they have), or “Organizer” (has complete control over family and settings).

1. Once you’ve added your desired family members, you’ll have to setup and amend settings to your desired expectations.
2. Setting the content restriction age will automatically adjust to the member’s age: ie. if your child is 3 years old, then the content restriction age will be 3 years old, and anything with an age recommendation above that will automatically be blocked
3. Manage Online Communication Settings will determined who the child can communicate with online.
   • “Everyone” is absolutely anyone and everyone on Xbox
   • “Friends Only” is people only they know who are accepted friend
   • “No one” is self-explanatory
   • You can also select whether they are able to “Add Friends”
4. Once all of the above is done, you can go back into that member (as well as any other added members) via “Settings” and then select the person from beneath “Your Family”

How to block certain games

This is touched upon above, but we’ll break it down further in a step-by-step guide below.

1. When you boot up the app, navigate to “Settings”
2. Click on the family member whose content you want to restrict
3. Scroll down to “Content Restrictions”
4. Click through, and tap the “Allow Content Suitable For Age” and then select the desired age
5. There are additional settings below it for Minecraft, including total access, multiplayer access, access to Clubs (groups of people who play the game and meet up online)

How to set time limits

1. When you boot up the app, navigate to “Settings”
2. Click on the family member whose content you want to restrict
3. Scroll down and click through “Screen Time”
4. From here, you can check the total amount of time spent on their account, or set a time limit, either across the entire week, or across each individual day (ie. longer time allowed on weekends)

Having trouble with the app or any of the above? Sound off in the comments below and we’ll do our best to help out!