If you’re concerned about other users making unauthorized purchases on your account or through child accounts connected to yours, you’ve come to the right place! Below we’ve listed some instructions to help you set restrictions for both your account and any that may be associated with it.
Sony
Sony allows you to set a password to use at checkout, here’s how:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Account Management’
- Choose ‘Account Information > ‘Wallet’
- Select ‘Purchase Settings,’ after which you’ll be asked to enter your sign-in information
- From here you can choose ‘Require Password at Checkout’ and set a password to protect your wallet!
Sony also lets you set a budget for Child Accounts:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Family and Parental Controls’
- Click ‘Family Management’ and select the account you’d like to limit
- Choose ‘Parental Controls’ > ‘Monthly Spending Limit’ after which you can set the limit to an amount from zero to unlimited.
Microsoft
Microsoft also allows you to require a PIN for purchases:
- Press the Xbox button to open the menu
- Go to ‘Profile & system’ > ‘Settings’ > ‘Account’
- Select ‘Sign-in, security & PIN’ > ‘Change my sign-in & security preferences’
- From here you can select ‘Custom’ and go to the ‘Ask for my PIN to make purchases’ option
Child accounts are set to require an adult’s approval for purchases by default, but if this was turned off or you just want to make sure that it’s on, here’s how to access that option:
- Sign into your Family Page with your adult Microsoft account
- Find the child’s name and select ‘More options’ > ‘Spending’
- Under the ‘Ask to buy’ section, you’ll see a ‘Needs organizer approval to buy things’ option. You can set that to either ‘On’ or ‘Off,’ depending on your preference.
Steam
Steam users can use ‘Family View’ to limit access to games and the Steam Store:
- Open the Steam client and click the Steam icon in the top left corner
- Select ‘Settings’ > ‘Family’ > ‘Manage’
- From here, you can follow the instructions from Steam to select what you’d like to limit, the recovery email, and the PIN number you want to use to keep everything secure.
Nintendo
If you haven’t already created a supervised account for your child on Nintendo, you’ll want to follow the instructions to do so on their website. If you have, you can follow these instructions to disable purchases on that account:
- Log into your parent Nintendo Account and access your Nintendo Account settings
- Click ‘Family Group’ and select the account where you’d like to manage restrictions
- Here you can adjust spending, purchases, and what content can be viewed in the Nintendo eShop
You can also ensure your password is required for purchases:
- Choose ‘System Settings’ from the Home Screen on your Switch
- Scroll down and select ‘Users,’ then choose the account you want to enable password restrictions in the eShop for
- Choose ‘Nintendo eShop Settings’ and in ‘Password-Entry Settings,’ hit ‘Change’
- Select ‘Enter’, then hit ‘Save’ or ‘A’ on your controller to save these settings