As parents we are always looking for ways to limit our kids' screen time, and gaming is on top of the chart when it comes to screen time. According to a recent research, 91% of kids between ages 2 and 17 are playing video games, and Xbox One is among the top video consoles that kids play these days.
In this article I will show you step by step instructions on how to set up parental controls on your kid's Xbox One right from your computer or your smart phone so that you can limit your kid's time, and control what games he can play.
As you may already know, Xbox has been created by Microsoft, and Microsoft games are designed to have all of the game data, achievements, rewards and history of your kids saved online on the cloud, and for that reason you need a Microsoft account to play.
If your kid has his own email address to sign in to a Microsoft account, then you'll need his Microsoft account information. Once you have the information, follow these instructions:
Go to Microsoft.com and on the left top corner, click on "Sign in to your account".
If you have an account, go ahead and log in to your Microsoft Account. If not, create a new account with your own email address. You can add your picture and set up your profile as you wish.
After you sign in to your account, click on your picture or the icon on the left top corner and click on "My Microsoft Account".
After you go to your My Microsoft Account, Click on "Family".
Click on "Add Family Member" to add your child's account that he uses to sign into his Xbox One, and send an Invite to your child's email account.
You will need to have access to your child's email to accept the invitation.
Open the email that you just sent to your child's email account and click on "Join", and then "Join the family".
Once you accept the invitation, you will see your child account waiting to be accepted. Click on "Accept Now" and your child will be a family member under your account to be controlled. You can set up different accounts for each member of your family and give different permissions and time limitations to each member. They just need to log in with their own account every time they want to play.
Now that your child's account is under family members, you have access to his account and the power to limit his activity, set up screen time, limit apps and games, restrict contents he can view, and control his spending.
Limit Activity
Under "Device Limits", you will see your child's Xbox or his other devices that are signed in with the same email account.
Click on the button on the left to the Xbox to limit the activity. Here, you can limit the activity day by day by choosing the desired time limit for each day. You can give as low as 30 minutes play time to maximum of 12 hours, or block the day entirely.
App and Game Limits
First make sure that your child has turned on the Activity reporting and history on his account, and if not, sign in with his account and give all the necessary permissions and then sign back to your own account to continue.
On top of the page, click on "App and game limits", and turn on App and game limits. Here, you will see all the games that your child has been playing on his Xbox One. You can click on each game or app and limit the time for each game or app on weekdays and weekends.
Content Restrictions
Go back to the top of the page, and click on "Content Restrictions" to set an age limit to block inappropriate apps, games, and media. First, turn on Block inappropriate apps, games & media, then choose your kids age, and the content that are inappropriate for your kid's age will not be available on his Xbox One Console anymore.
Web Browsing
Turn "Web Browsing" on to block inappropriate websites and help protect your child from sites and search results that are too mature. This setting works with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, Xbox One, and Android devices running Microsoft Launcher, as well as Internet Explorer on Windows 10 and Xbox One devices.
To allow certain websites, or block certain websites, you can enter the website addresses under "Always allowed" or "Always blocked".
Spending
Go back to the top of the page again, and click on "Spending". Here, you can add money to your kid's Microsoft account, so he can buy what he wants without spending too much.
Turn on "Needs adult approval to buy things" to require your approval for the things your child wants to buy in the Microsoft Store—except for what he gets with gift cards or money already in his Microsoft account.
Turn on "Email me when my child gets stuff" so you would get emails every time your child tries to buy something on Xbox.
You can also add money to your kid's account, and see his purchase history.
If you have any questions and need further instructions, write a comment below and I will answer all your questions.
