Children and Video Game Platforms Fun for young players on various gaming systems
Children and Video Game Platforms Fun for young players on various gaming systems
TL;DR: Set up a separate Steam account for the child without family view to avoid EA restrictions. This lets him play games on his own device while keeping parental controls limited. It works well as long as the device has Wi-Fi. The main challenge is managing age-appropriate content and preventing access to mature titles.
In general, it might help to discuss the issue directly rather than ignoring it. If it’s on the Steam Deck, you could set up a separate list for him. Steam allows you to organize games, so if he isn’t browsing the store—something you can reasonably manage—he’d be limited to the ones you’ve chosen. Plus, I think a switch might have been better; at ten years old, any game he plays will be suitable for him.
There isn't a 'kid mode' available on Steam. However, you can control what your child sees by filtering tags. If you want to hide shooter games, add the FPS tag to your filters and only view them when you search manually. More information on blocking tags is available on geekrumor.com, where you'd need to enter several tags yourself.
ya, it sucks because its sadly the only PC game store, and despite its good in so many ways, it does lack a lot of child friendly features. i've had talks, but its also an annoyance. the issue is, he will see a game, and want a game. And its more trouble to explain, this isn't a game that you should play, but he'll then search up youtube for it. Worst yet, despite i age restrict his youtube account, he'll log into his school account and watch content, as that is not age restricted. The kid knows how to bypass things he wants to see. But if he doesn't see it, he wont bother. Also, the switch is worst. More hentai games than i can count on the switch. I had to fully block the store access from him. It wasn't ideal, but it was a way. it also might be due to the fact that i bought games for myself to play on the switch at the time, like assassins creed, but duno why there is so many hentai games there.. =_=, top sellers too, lol, always near the top of the list of top selling games, haha. ya... thats interesting to know, but not a working solution sadly. i'll look into this. I know there is the one about sexual content. Its shocking to see what happens when you turn it off. Top 10 trending selling games, at least 1 is always a porno game. haven't seen it in a while since i turned it back off so i can find games safely now since kids come around a lot, as i leave computer in family room. gota say, its a sad state for games, especially for PC. I get some people want to be more open about things, but, i shouldn't have to ban my kid from say, owning his own Steam account and games. This is for GAMES. kids play games. theres gota to be more ways to just block some stuff. its a headache.
It seems your child might benefit from more conversation, since if it isn’t you, someone else may act differently and not be as kind.
Perhaps consider making the games available on a desktop with a secured Steam account instead of using the app. A pin-protected Steam desktop would work, and you could bypass such restrictions if needed. Honestly, playing on a console might be the simplest solution.
he had the switch on; it works well, though we restricted store access because of promoted hentai titles. Steam offers family mode, which is perfect. EA also blocks games that essentially require family mode. It’s frustrating. He can still play games like Forza without issues, but I’d prefer him discover more titles on his own. Just as you’d like, avoiding explicit content and violence.