The PlayStation offers loads of games that are great for young children to play. But if you also game on the system or have older children who use it, you might worry your little one can access those games too. Don’t worry! PlayStation offers a robust set of Parental Controls to allow your children to play without you worrying about accidental purchases or accessing age-inappropriate content. It’s also really easy to set up!

To set up your family on PSN, you need to create an adult account before creating accounts for your children.

The adult who creates a child account is known as the family manager. The family manager can:

Manage play time.

Manage purchases from the family manager wallet.

Manage access to games, videos, and applications.

Disable text, video, and voice chat messages.

Block user-generated videos, streams, and pictures.

Appoint other adults in the family as "guardians".

Set and change controls on all the child family members (including how much can be spent from your wallet).

Let’s set up your child’s account.

Select Add Family Member > Create User.

Enter the child's name and date of birth, then click Next.

The User Agreement will appear, and you'll need to accept this to continue. Then follow the on-screen instructions to set parental controls.

Now that your child has been set up with an account let’s see how we can customise your parental controls.

Time limits:

On your PS4 system, go to Settings > Parental Controls /Family Management > Family Management and select your kid's account.

Input your local time zone and then select Play Time settings.

Go to Restrict Play Time and select Restrict.

Move to the next section, Duration and Playable Hours. You can limit screen time by day of the week, duration, and end time.

Next, move to ‘When Play Time Ends’. You can decide to notify your kids that their time is up or log the machine off when the clock runs out. (‘Notify Only’ allows them to keep playing but sends a message every five minutes. If you select ‘Log Out’, it prevents them from saving their game.)

Once you have set your restrictions, select ‘Save’ to apply the changes

Chat options:

Go to Settings > Parental Controls/Family Management > Family Management. (You may need to enter your account password.)

Select your kid's account and select Applications/Devices/Network Features.

Under Network Features, you can choose whether to allow your kid to communicate with other players on PSN or view content created by other players.

Save your settings.

Mature Content:

Go to Settings > Parental Controls/Family Management > Family Management. You may need to enter your account password.

Select your kid's account, select Applications/Devices/Network Features and select the content you would like to restrict.

Scroll down to ‘Use of Internet Browser’ and select ‘allowed’ or ‘not allowed.’

Save your settings.

Purchases options:

Go to Settings > Parental Controls/Family Management > Family Management.

Select your kid's account and select Applications/Devices/Network Features.

Select ‘Monthly Spending Limit’ and input a maximum amount of money your child can spend per month.

Save your settings.

And with that, your child is now secure to play on their console!

How can I access PlayStation 4 Parental Controls?

Set them up and adjust as needed from the "Family Management" section in the settings menu.