Family Accounts on PlayStation and Xbox: Who Can Do What

Which role is yours?

Choose the role your account holds in the family. Each one shows what that role can set on its own, and where it stops.

Setting up a child's limits

1. Get the child's account ready. PlayStation asks that your child has completed email verification and is signed in on their console before parental controls apply.
2. Set a monthly spending limit. It starts at 0 for a child, so nothing can be bought until the family manager or an appointed parent or guardian raises it. On the web, open Family Management and edit the child's settings; on a PS5:Settings → Family and Parental Controls → Family Management → your child → Parental Controls → Monthly Spending Limit
3. Set Playtime Settings: how long and when your child can play each day. A child can ask for more playtime from a PS5 reminder notification, and you either change today's playtime or decline.
4. On Microsoft, work from the family page as the organizer. Organizers add money, set purchase permissions and see spending. Microsoft's screen time also covers Windows and Android devices; this guide stays with Xbox. Members are added and removed at account.microsoft.com/family.
5. For Xbox-only limits, use the web or the Xbox Family Settings app. Xbox Support says these settings can't be managed from the Xbox console itself.
6. Turn on the reports you will actually read. The PlayStation Family app shows the last 7 days of activity and the most played games. Microsoft shows reports only where the member has added a device, and the Xbox Family Settings app adds daily and weekly reports.
7. Tell your child what is set and why. This is our advice rather than a platform rule: limits a child knows about lead to requests, not workarounds.

When a child grows up

On Microsoft, a person under the statutory age in their region is prompted at registration to request consent from an adult. Microsoft's family pages don't set out what happens when that child comes of age. What they do say: to remove a child member, Microsoft may ask you to remove consent first, through Remove consent for this child's account. Only the adult who originally granted consent can remove it, so a second organizer can't do it for them.

Once a member is an adult, we suggest switching off the activity reports and restrictions that were set for a child, unless they ask to keep them. Microsoft notes a member who comes of age may want earlier restrictions lifted, and the organizer turns those switches off.

Family roles side by side

Find your role in the first column. The other two say what PlayStation or Microsoft lets that role do, and what it can't.

What family tools are for

Family features on PlayStation and Xbox exist so a parent or guardian can set limits for children they are responsible for, with the child aware of those limits. They are not a way to watch another adult.

Fine to do

• Set spending limits and playtime for your own child's account.
• Read the activity reports for a child you manage, and talk about them together.
• Approve or decline a child's requests for more playtime or a purchase.

Needs the other person's agreement

• Adding another adult on PlayStation: a request to join goes to the email address you enter, and they accept it.
• Adding a Microsoft family member under the statutory age: an adult has to give consent.
• Keeping reports on for someone who has become an adult.

Not what these tools are for

• Adding a partner, housemate or other adult to track their play, spending or contacts.
• Signing in to anyone's account, a family member's included, to read messages or change settings behind their back.

If an account you share a console with shows activity you didn't expect, see someone else using your PSN or an unknown console on your Xbox account. A purchase that went through before a limit was in place is covered in our guide to unexpected PlayStation Store charges.