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[Draugoth]

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t Sony Interactive Entertainment, we're committed to providing safe play for gamers of all ages, including enhancing ways for parents to manage their children's gaming experience. This includes the current parental control features available on the PS5 and PS4 console, such as playtime settings and age restriction settings for games. Today, we're pleased to announce our next step in this commitment with PlayStation Family, a new dedicated parental control mobile app available on iOS and Android devices*. PlayStation Family app will be launching around the world starting today.


PlayStation Family app is a new experience to help parents set up and manage their children's gaming experience on PlayStation – straight from their supported mobile device. The app includes a number of new customizable features for parents to manage their children's playtime, including an activity report, more visibility into what their children are playing, and approving extra playtime requests – all at the tap of a finger.

Here's a look at the features from PlayStation Family app:




Guided Onboarding – Enjoy a thoughtfully guided experience setting up a child account easily with PlayStation Family app.


Real-Time Notifications – Get notified what game a child is playing in real time. Approve or decline a child's requests for extra playtime, restricted games, and communicate from a mobile device – you have the final say.




Activity Reports – Review daily and weekly activity reports at a glance. Parents can see up-to-date information about a child's playtime and activity.




Manage Playtime – Set playtime limits for each day of the week. Children can enjoy more flexibility by requesting additional playtime from the console, while parents can approve or decline their requests from a phone or tablet.




Manage Spending – Manage spending activity by adding funds, viewing balances, and setting a monthly spending limit for a child to buy content from the PlayStation Store.





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Content Filters – Choose and configure age appropriate content with a tap of a button. We've included presets that automatically apply recommended settings for different age groups, and every setting can also be customized individually to best suit each child.


Social Interactions- Customize privacy settings and how your children connect and play. Manage access to social features.


PlayStation Family app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play in most markets starting today.


We're excited to bring an easy way for parents to manage their children's gaming directly from their mobile devices. This is just the beginning with our new mobile app – we'll plan to continue adding enhancements to PlayStation Family app to evolve the experience over time. We hope you'll enjoy it and we look forward to your feedback.

 

[roosnam1980]

 

[Moonjt9]

As a dad of two young boys, this is quite nice. Managing screen time and accounts in the main psn app is really clunky and annoying. This feels like a very convenient way to manage stuff while keeping the main app for responsible account owners.

 

[Imtjnotu]

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Great app for overly protective parents.

 

[Revolutionary]

 

[Cramoss]

 

[Sintoid]

Inb4 any Concord meme

 

[Interfectum]

As a dad of two young boys, this is quite nice. Managing screen time and accounts in the main psn app is really clunky and annoying. This feels like a very convenient way to manage stuff while keeping the main app for responsible account owners.

Still sucks that I can't properly share my library with my three kids. I have to constantly juggle PS5 offline access between them and they dont have cloud saves like I do. I wish there was a family service we could buy to streamline that shit. Steam makes it so much easier.

 

[roosnam1980]

Inb4 any Concord meme

 

[Team Skoda]

Great app for overly protective parents.

Or parents that don't know how to parent/discipline.

 

[Interfectum]

Or parents that don't know how to parent/discipline.

yeah I dont need an app that tracks time. I want an app that lets me send my kids games, turns on their cloud saves, etc. not sure how many people here have three small children but trying to get everyone going between two ps5s and family sharing is a pain in the fucking ass. Switch as well. Steam and Xbox are pretty good on this front.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Germuso]

 

[mckmas8808]

As a dad of two young boys, this is quite nice. Managing screen time and accounts in the main psn app is really clunky and annoying. This feels like a very convenient way to manage stuff while keeping the main app for responsible account owners.

Totally agree! Love this.

 

[DAHGAMING]

Im glad my parents didnt have access to this sort of stuff, if they would of tried to control my screen time both of them would of got there jaw spun

 

[Loomy]

Thank god.

The current system is one of the most convoluted and frustrating experiences. It gives you a lot of controls, but having to jump back and forth between accounts to update time, spend, age gate, etc is such a massive pain in the ass.

Now they just need to be less restrictive with accounts in general.

 

[nemiroff]

That's good. The Xbox family app has been so good (which is why I chose the platform for them). I mean, the console shuts down at the same time every evening (with a 15 minute prewarning), and I can follow the screen times and activity to get ahead of unhealthy habits. And there have been no complaints from my boys, they quickly got used to it, and with no nagging. Just quiet serene bedtimes galore, it's awesome.

 

[Hero_Select]

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Great app for overly protective parents.

I suppose in your house you just let them on Roblox unrestricted . I do hope this is a joke

This is a good thing for sure.

 

[Karim]

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[MikeM]

Does Xbox or Steam have anything equivalent?

 

[reezoo]

Hopefully i dont have to login every time i want to change something, also please give option to change country every other console has it, this is BS.

 

[Fbh]

Seems good.
Giving well made and easy to use parental control tools to parents is a better alternative to "protect children" than putting annoying restrictions on everyone.

Im glad my parents didnt have access to this sort of stuff, if they would of tried to control my screen time both of them would of got there jaw spun

The "parent control app" back then:

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Great idea. I'm a parent and most of the times all today's parents are nowhere near as disciplined to keep tabs on their kids and let them run riot on tech.

Or is Michael Jordan right when he he said to fuck them kids?

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I suppose in your house you just let them on Roblox unrestricted . I do hope this is a joke

This is a good thing for sure.

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

 

[Dacvak]

Smh, Sony is always copying Nintendo.

 

[Loomy]

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

• At one point a few years ago, there was a guy driving around my neighbourhood here beckoning random kids into his car. And I live in a 'safe' part of the world.
• Roblox - and to a lesser extent Minecraft - is filled with pedophiles/groomers. The good thing with Minecraft is you have to go out of the game and engage with the broader community to run into them, so that makes it safer.
• When my wife used to play games online, she'd get weirdos messaging her creepy shit all the time.

So while I don't track my 7 year old daughter with GPS when she's outside, I will use every tool I can to keep her safe while she's online. Trying to shame any parent for doing that is ridiculous.

The world today isn't the same as it was 30 years ago when I was left to my own devices. And we're not even at a point yet where she knows wtf social media is - another fucking headache down the line.

I'm curious, what precautions do you take with your kids?

 

[Loomy]

Does Xbox or Steam have anything equivalent?

They do yeah. I don't think Steam has a separate app for it, but they do have these controls.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

• At one point a few years ago, there was a guy driving around my neighbourhood here beckoning random kids into his car. And I live in a 'safe' part of the world.
• Roblox - and to a lesser extent Minecraft - is filled with pedophiles/groomers. The good thing with Minecraft is you have to go out of the game and engage with the broader community to run into them, so that makes it safer.
• When my wife used to play games online, she'd get weirdos messaging her creepy shit all the time.

So while I don't track my 7 year old daughter with GPS when she's outside, I will use every tool I can to keep her safe while she's online. Trying to shame any parent for doing that is ridiculous.

The world today isn't the same as it was 30 years ago when I was left to my own devices. And we're not even at a point yet where she knows wtf social media is - another fucking headache down the line.

I'm curious, what precautions do you take with your kids?

I took very little precautions. There's some games my oldest son wasn't allowed to play when he was younger, like TLOU and GTA there was only a "no stripclub"-rule.

I barely set any timelimits on his gaming, because at some point he'd get bored and do something else.

The only rule was that I'd make him turn off his Playstation if he would rage. Which in time turned into something he'd do himself.
And occasionally I had to make sure he did his homework before gaming if I noticed he was falling behind.

He's now almost 20, has a fulltime job, starting school again next year, and he's become a polite easy-going young man with an active social life.

You don't need to keep an eye on your kids 24/7. You just need to give them a bit of trust and breathing room and guide them instead of trying to control them.

And I now have a 2yo who will get the same treatment.

Btw, I also never restricted him irt social media, just taught him to not be an idiot and be aware that there are consequences in life if you do stupid shit.

 

[joey Dubs]

Finally, someone from my age or entertainment demographic lol

 

[joey Dubs]

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

Skechers footwear has teamed up with Apple to introduce airtags inside your kids' sneakers. No joke.

 

[Imtjnotu]

 

[Loomy]

I took very little precautions. There's some games my oldest son wasn't allowed to play when he was younger, like TLOU and GTA there was only a "no stripclub"-rule.

I barely set any timelimits on his gaming, because at some point he'd get bored and do something else.

The only rule was that I'd make him turn off his Playstation if he would rage. Which in time turned into something he'd do himself.
And occasionally I had to make sure he did his homework before gaming if I noticed he was falling behind.

He's now almost 20, has a fulltime job, starting school again next year, and he's become a polite easy-going young man with an active social life.

You don't need to keep an eye on your kids 24/7. You just need to give them a bit of trust and breathing room and guide them instead of trying to control them.

And I now have a 2yo who will get the same treatment.

Btw, I also never restricted him irt social media, just taught him to not be an idiot and be aware that there are consequences in life if you do stupid shit.

Okay well first of all, belated congrats on the new kid. Going back in 18 years later to do it all again is bold!

And I agree with the part I bolded. This is part of that for us. These restrictions relax over time as well. For example, at the start of the year we had an age rating restriction. But we've since learned that she's very capable of identifying from a thumbnail what she wants to play or what look like it may be too "scary" or "inappropriate", so those are gone now.

The spend one is pretty self explanatory with how scummy these things are in games, and the screen time one is something we have on all devices. Important here because winters are pretty brutal so it's easy to just want to sit and watch tv/play video games from 4 - 8 everyday. Forces us to find something else to do. Ideally together.

Congrats again.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

I probably will once they have a phone. I live in the UK, it's a complete mess and I worry about their safety.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Great app for overly protective parents.

It's the opposite - it's for parents who think these kinds of apps do the job of parenting for them.

 

[Mithos]

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

Everyone and their mother installs Life360 on their phones now days anyways, which even tells you when the other peoples phones (whom you have added to your friendslist) runs low/out of battery.

 

[lh032]

so we got this instead of playstation stars. thanks.

 

[EN250]

Can't they just add whatever this thing does to the true and trusted PS App? Like why the hell do I need to download another app instead of just relying on the one I use constantly, makes no sense...

 

[j0hnnix]

Damn I'm late on the Family memes.

 

[reinking]

Do you track your kids through gps as well when they go outside?

My daughter can pull up my granddaughter's location at any time (at least her phone). If they had the tools available when my daughter was younger, daman straight I would have used it. Funny enough my ex, who thinks I was overprotective, can currently track my adult daughter. My question would be why would someone not utilize these tools?

 

[CLW]

Great app for overly protective parents.

Tell me you are a virgin without…..

The pink hair reeeeee pedos run wild on gaming platforms