#SwitchAnticipatedTitle: Parental Controls

Deciding which games my kids get to play in any given day, and how long they can play them, is very important for me. On my current systems – Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One – I have a mixture of quality kid titles and games they probably shouldn’t see until they are at least 21. Unfortunetly, the lack of parental controls means they can see basically everything if they really want to, and launch any game they want. Nintendo is launching great parental controls for the Nintendo Switch which can all be set using your smart phone.

The new system will allow you to set time limits on your kids games, which will give them notifications when they are running out of time, or have run out of time. When time expires, you have the option to automatically put the game to sleep, which I assume would affectively save their current place in the game but not allow them to continue. While this might be extreme, it is a nice added feature.

You can also restrict which games your kids can play – i.e. set it so they can only play games rated E – which will give you the parents comfort knowing they won’t latch onto things they shouldn’t. These features are minimal in a way, but enough to give parents a good idea of what their kids are playing and for how long. A monthly report will even be sent to your phone detailing all the users daily and monthly activities.

The down side? My wife can see how often I get up at 2 or 3 AM to catch a few hours of video games!