Windows 10: New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

Brink · Dec 10, 2020

Gaming has long been a significant source of joy, inspiration, and social connection for players around the world, and social distancing has made this truer now than ever before. With the holiday break on the horizon, many parents and caregivers may be looking for ways to help balance screen time and family time. We know achieving this balance is important to families. That is why earlier this fall, we launched the Xbox Family Settings app for free on iOS and Android. Today, we are taking the next step on our journey to support families by introducing two new app features for child accounts on Xbox Live.

Pause Screen Time

The ability to pause screen time has been our number-one requested feature from parents and caregivers. Today, we are happy to add the Pause Screen Time feature to the app, which empowers parents to temporarily pause screen time for their childrenâs accounts â even if they have more screen time available for the day.

Whether the feature is used to reinforce asks to set the table for dinner or to make sure homework is completed, this feature will block children from their account until parents decide itâs time to play again, or until the block expires at the end of the day. Children will see the standard âYour screen time is upâ notification on their screen when parents press pause, and once parents decide play can resume, the preestablished rules for game time will take effect.

Pause your childrenâs game time by temporarily blocking their screen time. When paused, your child will see the âyour screen time is upâ message until you decide they can play again.

Ask to Buy

As we head into the holidays, it makes sense that children might want to purchase new games to play. We saw that our Ask to Buy feature â which is currently available via family settings on Xbox via console and PC â helps parents manage their childrenâs spending. So, we brought the feature to the Xbox Family Settings App so parents can manage from their phone.

Pause your childrenâs game time by temporarily blocking their screen time. When paused, your child will see the âyour screen time is upâ message until you decide they can play again.

If the setting is on, when children choose a game they would like to purchase, a request will be sent to the parentâs phone. This notification will include a link to where they can learn more about the game before approving or declining the purchase. The app will also list approved purchases so parents can keep track of recent purchases.

We hope that this feature helps take one more thing off the plates of busy parents everywhere.

When âAsk to buyâ is activated for your children, you can get a notification in the app.

These two features join the existing appâs functionality, which helps to tailor each childâs access to Xbox:

Screen time limits â set limits for each day of the week; for example, you can allow for more game time on the weekends or reduce it during the school week. And a new feature available today allows parents to proactively grant additional screen time â a great option if they did well on a test or completed their homework!

Content filters â set filters based on the age of each child; for example, an 8-year-old can only access games that are rated E and will be blocked from accessing titles that are intended for more mature players.

Play and communication settings â choose the option to block all access to play and communication with other players, limit access to âfriends onlyâ or grant permission for older children to play and chat with âeveryone.â

Friends list â new with the app is the ability to approve or decline friend requests your child has made to add friends; parents can also view their friends list.

Activity reports â view daily and weekly activity reports for each child to understand how they are spending their time on Xbox.

Gaming is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family and have fun throughout the year, but it should also be part of a balanced lifestyle. We hope the Xbox Family Settings app will empower parents to have conversations about the right amount of gaming and appropriate content with their children. Weâll continue to update the Xbox Family Settings app to ensure that it meets the needs of todayâs families and help everyone to enjoy fun and age-appropriate gaming.

Download the Xbox Family Settings app today for free for iOS and Android to jump in and easily manage your familyâs gaming on-the-go.
For more information about the Xbox Family Settings app, visit Xbox.com/family-app.

Microsoft is committed to empowering families to set boundaries and encourage responsible technology use by offering choices on the tools that are right for each familyâs unique needs â learn more here.
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Source: New Features Available Today on the Xbox Family Settings App to Help Manage Children’s Gaming - Xbox Wire

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Brink · Dec 10, 2020

Xbox Announces Xbox Family Settings App to help manage children gaming

Safety is a huge priority at Xbox, and we’ve worked for years to offer families tools to find the right balance of gaming in their lives and to fit their unique needs. Family settings on Xbox include more than 20 customizable features to help parents set screen time limits, set content filters and manage who their children can play and communicate with. This provides parents with the choice and flexibility to decide what settings are right for their children. Today, I’m excited to announce an update in our safety offerings: the Xbox Family Settings app, available now in preview on Android and iOS, which makes it easy to manage family settings from anywhere. See here for more details.

The Xbox Family Settings app (Preview) empowers parents and caregivers to manage their children’s gaming on Xbox consoles through their mobile device. It provides a simple and convenient way to create child accounts and customize family settings on the Xbox console to ensure your kids have access to gaming that you feel is appropriate. The Xbox Family Settings app (Preview) includes helpful features such as:

Screen time limits – set limits for each day of the week, for example, you have the ability to allow for more time on the weekends or reduce time during the school week

Content filters – set filters based on the age of each child; an 8-year old can only access games rated E, and will be blocked from accessing titles that are too mature

Play and communication settings – block all access to play and communication with other players, limit access to “friends only” or grant permission for older children to play and chat with “everyone”

Activity reports – view daily and weekly activity reports for each child to understand how they are spending their time on Xbox

With the app, parents and caregivers can respond to notifications in real time, such as requests from their child to extend the console screen time limit for the day. We have also built in a new feature within the app to easily enable access and multiplayer capability for Minecraft, which is rated E10+. Sometimes parents of younger children want to provide access to Minecraft and possibly enable online play with their friends, and a convenient toggle in the app unlocks those specific capabilities quickly. Based on customer feedback on this feature, we may include similar functionality for other games in the future.

Additionally, once the app is available to broad consumers later this year, parents will be able to view and manage their child’s friends list and approve or decline requests to add new friends via notifications sent to the app.

We know that especially right now, families are facing new challenges in the wake of school closures, working from home and social distancing due to COVID-19. In my own family, we’ve had to navigate this “new normal,” and how our existing rules for screen time might need to be adjusted to better reflect our reality. With the Xbox Family Settings app (Preview), parents can easily relax screen time on Xbox so kids have more time to play, or create a new schedule to help balance time for remote learning. We believe that especially now, gaming plays an important role to help connect friends and family and have fun while staying home. The app makes it easy to find the right balance of gaming time that feels right for your family.

The Xbox Family Settings app (Preview) is available now for all Android users and the first 10,000 people on iOS to test in preview. To download the Preview, go to: Xbox Family Settings (Preview) - Apps on Google Play and Join the Xbox Family Settings beta - TestFlight - Apple and then follow the steps to setup on your mobile device.

We encourage you to come along on the journey and share your feedback so we can further improve and refine the experience for all users. We’re always listening to customer feedback, and more features will come to the app over time. We hope you’ll join us!

Stay safe and healthy, everyone.
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Source: Xbox Announces the Xbox Family Settings App (Preview) to Help Manage Children’s Gaming - Xbox Wire

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Brink · Dec 10, 2020

Xbox Family Settings app now generally available on Android and iOS

At Xbox, we believe that gaming is a source of joy, inspiration, and social connection with friends and family – and this is true now more than ever before. With COVID-19 continuing to have impact our daily lives, gaming has helped people stay connected while social distancing. Gaming is a great way to unify and bring people together, but we also believe that gaming should be part of a balanced life as well as safe and welcoming for all, and we know this is especially important to families.

Today, just in time for the new school year, we are launching the Xbox Family Settings app, which is available for free to download for iOS and Android. The app is an important next step in our journey to provide families with the tools they need to help create the right balance of gaming in their lives. Right from their phone, parents and caregivers can easily create child accounts, update screen time limits, respond to notifications, and much more. It’s an easy and simple way to set guardrails on children’s gaming on Xbox One and, come November 10, on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S!

The app has been in preview for the last few months, which has provided valuable customer feedback to help us to refine the experience that is available today. We are also thrilled to unveil three new app features that parents and caregivers can manage right from their fingertips:

Accept or decline friends your child wants to add

View and manage your child’s friends list

Proactively grant your child more screen time – this was a common suggestion from our users during preview. Thank you for the feedback!

How to Use the Xbox Family Settings app

An important first step to using the app is to ensure that each child has their own child or teen account. And setting up a child account is quick and easy through the app and on average, takes just minutes.

Once a child account has been set up, parents and caregivers can customize access to gaming for each child:

Screen time limits – set limits for each day of the week; for example, you can allow for more game time on the weekends or reduce it during the school week. And a new feature available today allows parents to proactive grant additional screen time – a great option if they did well on a test or completed their homework!

Content filters – set filters based on the age of each child; for example, an 8-year-old can only access games that are rated E and will be blocked from accessing titles that are intended for more mature players

Play and communication settings – choose the option to block all access to play and communication with other players, limit access to “friends only” or grant permission for older children to play and chat with “everyone”

Friends list – new with the app is the ability to approve or decline friend requests your child has made to add friends; parents can also view their friends list

Activity reports – view daily and weekly activity reports for each child to understand how they are spending their time on Xbox

The app also includes a feature to easily enable access and multiplayer capability for Minecraft, which is rated E10+. Sometimes parents of younger children want to provide access to Minecraft and possibly enable online play with their friends, and a convenient toggle in the app unlocks those specific capabilities quickly. We received positive feedback on this feature from users and we may include similar functionality for other games in the future.

We know that one-size does not fit all and it’s so important that as parents, you have the flexibility to decide and customize what the right access to gaming looks like for your child. With the app, you can also respond to notifications in real time, such as requests from your child to extend the console screen time limit for the day.

Looking Towards the Future

Parents and caregivers know best what content is right for their child. By bringing key family settings features right to your phone, we hope that families feel empowered to have important conversations about how to balance gaming with other responsibilities like school and time with friends. We will also release additional new features in the future for the Xbox Family Settings app to provide families with the tools and support they need for safer and fun for everyone.

Download the Xbox Family Settings app today for free for iOS and Android to jump in and easily manage gaming for your family!

For more information about the Xbox Family Settings app, visit Xbox.com/family-app.

Microsoft is committed to empowering families to set boundaries and encourage responsible technology use by offering choices on the tools that are right for each family’s unique needs – learn more here.
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Source: Xbox Family Settings App Available Now on iOS and Android to Help Manage Children’s Gaming - Xbox Wire

See also: Xbox Family Settings App | Xbox

Download for Android: Xbox Family Settings - Apps on Google Play

Download for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xbox-f...s/id1507406707

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Brink · Dec 10, 2020

New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox Xbox

Here at Xbox, we see technology as an advantage for families today. It can be a positive force in the home and classroom, in personal growth, and in helping families and friends spend quality time together. We also know that it’s important that children learn how to build a healthy relationship with technology. We’re committed to making gaming a positive and inclusive form of entertainment, and with that goal in mind, family settings on Xbox ensures that gaming can be a rewarding experience for every member of the family. Over the years, we have continued to innovate family settings on Xbox to be as unique as families are today and support their needs.

So how can parents take advantage of everything family settings on Xbox has to offer? First off, parents will need to set up a child account at account.microsoft.com and link it to their Microsoft account. Once that’s done, parents have access to more than 15 comprehensive and customizable tools to manage their child’s account across four key categories: screen time management, purchase limits, content filters, and privacy. Let’s take a closer look:

Screen time management: Parents can set time limits and view activity reports to keep on top of their children’s activity. Limits can be set for each day of the week, meaning parents can restrict gaming on school nights or allow more time over the weekend.

Purchase limits: Parents can choose to approve children’s purchases before they are made, to receive alerts after each purchase, or to set up an allowance to limit purchases children can make on their own.

Content filters: Parents can filter or allow games, apps and websites based on the age of their children to ensure they are interacting with age-appropriate content. Children can also request access to content which parents can then approve or decline.

Privacy: Parents can set what people see about their child’s online profile, status and gaming history and who they can communicate with online. This is especially valuable with the increasing popularity of multiplayer games where users can interact with other players around the world. These settings can be managed via the parent’s Microsoft account at xbox.com/Settings.

We’ve also heard feedback and questions from parents whose kids enjoy playing cross-network enabled games. Available today, Fortnite is the first game to feature our new cross-play settings, which provides parents and caregivers with more choice in managing cross-network scenarios for their children who play on Xbox. This includes two new settings parents can turn on or off, which empowers them to allow or block both cross-network play and cross-network communication, on their child’s account. As with the rest of the family settings, these can be changed in the parent’s Microsoft account. We expect other cross-network enabled games will be updated in the future to include these settings and offer more choice for parents.

Of course, ensuring families have fun isn’t solely the domain of parents. To that end, we also empower kids to play an active role in learning healthy digital habits. Our family settings features include an activity report that kids can view so they are aware of their own gaming habits and, with screen time limits, kids can request extensions to their time on the console or PC, which parents can approve or decline. Kids can also use the Ask a parent feature to request permission to make app or game purchases in the Microsoft and Xbox stores, as well as request access to websites, apps or games. We feel that when kids are a part of this process, it provides a collaborative and fun gaming experience for everyone.

At the end of the day, communication is the most important tool parents can employ to ensure their family has a fun and positive gaming experience. We encourage parents to have an ongoing dialogue with their children about healthy technology habits and customize their family settings to fit their unique passion for gaming. If you’d like to learn more about our industry-leading Microsoft family settings and features, visit Xbox.com/family.
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Source: Family Settings on Xbox Provide Fun, Positive Gaming; New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available - Xbox Wire

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Windows 10: New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

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