Sony, via its PlayStation arm, has launched its very own parental control app for smartphones and tablets, called PlayStation Family. Much like similar parental control functions prior, it allows parents to manage their children’s playtime and spending limits on the PS5 and PS4, as well as provide activity reports and real-time notifications.
The new app lets parents control the play experience of their children remotely via their Android or iOS smartphones. For households with more than one child, PlayStation Family also lets parents create multiple profiles to help keep track of each individual kid.
For starters, the PlayStation Family app offers a guided onboarding experience to help set up a child’s account for parents who have never handled any similar apps before. Through this process, parents can also set playtime limits for each day of the week, as well as limit how much they can spend online, both of which can be changed at a later date.
Keep in mind that kids can ask for more playtime, and parents can accept or reject their requests through the app. Parents will also receive daily and weekly activity reports at a glance. They can also view additional information, such as what games their children are playing and for how long, with a tap of a button.
Moreover, parents can tailor-fit a child’s play experience with content filters that can bar kids from playing games that they might be too young for. Each setting can be customised to suit an individual child, but PlayStation has included presets that can be automatically applied to different age groups. Nevertheless, much like additional playtime, children can request to play some more mature games at the parent’s discretion.
Last, but perhaps most importantly, the app also grants the ability to limit a child’s online social interaction (perhaps finally silencing the screaming 12-year-olds in online lobbies). However, PlayStation did not elaborate on the function’s limits and capabilities. PlayStation confirmed that the company will continue to add additional features to the app over time. The PlayStation Family app is available to download for free through the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
(Source: PlayStation)
