I am an avid reader of these forums like many of you. One of the forums I make sure to read is My LIVE account was suspended. I find may parents/people that really don’t know what their kids do online. Now I know some of them lie that they had no idea about what was going on. I believe many really don’t have a clue how this works until their kids get a ban of some kind. By then it’s too late to really do our job as parents. I figured I would post so tips I have found that works well with my two kids. The way I have things set up makes it safer for them. Also there is less chance to get taken advantage of.
As parents we know there’s less chance of our children getting into trouble if they’re supervised. Today’s online gaming is your children’s’ new (electronic) playground. Parents understand the importance in seeing their children participate in sporting, musical, and theatrical events. Parents need to be involved in online gaming with their children – even if it’s simply to watch.
All of this can be found here on xbox.com. I know it can be hard for some to find all this information. Maybe you’re not good with computers and such. This is to help you find it with one stop.
Parental controls are divided into two groups: console controls and online safety and privacy . Console controls are located in the Family Settings or Family Center area on your console (depending on your Xbox LIVE membership type).
Turn on console controls
- On your console, go to the Settings Hub and select Family.
- Select Content Controls.
- Select On to turn on Console Safety.
- Enter a 4-button pass code using your controller.
- Select Save and Exit.
Once Console Safety is turned on, you can explore the individual parental controls such as
Ratings and Content: These settings let you restrict games and video content based on the content's rating. You can also set whether or not unrated or explicit content can be played on this console.
Family Timer: This setting allows you to limit the time that your console can be used on a daily or weekly basis
Xbox LIVE Access: This setting allows you to decide if your family can connect to Xbox LIVE from this console.
Xbox LIVE Membership Creation: This setting allows you to control whether or not new Xbox LIVE memberships can be created from your console.
Change your safety and privacy settings
- On your console, go to the Settings Hub and select Privacy.
- Select Change Settings.
- Select a premade privacy group or select Customize.
Online Friends – Other people on Xbox Live may want to add your child to their personal friends list. To manage approval of your child’s online friends, you can require these requests to be approved by you.
- Select Approval Not Required to allow your child to send and accept new friend requests on his or her own.
- Select Require Approval to require that all new friend requests be approved by you. If you select this option, you must also approve any new friend requests that your child wants to send to other people.
Communications – Manage who your child can communicate with on Xbox Live. Communication on Xbox Live includes chat, messages, and game invites using voice, video, or text.
- Select Approval Not Required to allow your child to send and accept new friend requests on his or her own.
- Select Require Approval to require that all new friend requests be approved by you. If you select this option, you must also approve any new friend requests that your child wants to send to other people.
Communications – Manage who your child can communicate with on Xbox Live. Communication on Xbox Live includes chat, messages, and game invites using voice, video, or text.
- Choose your level of security:
- Select Everyone to allow your child to communicate with anyone on Xbox Live.
- Select Friends Only to allow your child to communicate only with people on his or her friends list.
- Select Blocked to block everyone from communicating with your child. Your child will still receive new friend requests.
- Change the settings to whatever you’d like.
- To exit press the B on your controller, and then choose Save and Exit.
You need to do this on your child’s gametag. This alone can help your family out. I do not work for Microsoft and this is NOT an official post. These are just some tips that I use for my kids.
