The Nintendo Switch is a great console both for those of us of a certain age and for the little ones in the house. Of course, with them you have to be especially careful if you do not want them to spend more time than desired playing or access inappropriate content for their ages. To avoid all this are the parental controls of Nintendo for Switch and that is how they work.
Nintendo Switch parental control, what is it for?
Parental controls are, as their name suggests, a series of adjustments that parents and guardians of minors can make in a multitude of operating systems and devices. All this so that they are used correctly or, rather, so that there is no type of abuse and they are safe as to what types of content they can access, etc.
The Nintendo Switch offers parental controls and it is good that you keep them in mind, especially if your children or minors in charge have one. So you can let them take it without fear and without the need to be aware, because everything will be automated.
These Nintendo Switch parental controls offer the following:
- Time control: whether or not you can pay attention to how long they have been playing, calm down. With these controls you will be able to define what time they will be able to dedicate to video games per day
- Game control: with this function what you achieve is a detailed report with the playing time for each title. A series of data that you can see on a daily basis or as a monthly summary. You can also block titles that you do not want to play for any reason. For example, the PEGI rating
- Control of extra functions: the Nintendo Switch not only offers options to play the different titles in its catalog, it also allows you to communicate with other users or share videos and captures on social networks. You can even manage whether or not they will have permission to make purchases or downloads without your prior consent.
Therefore, now that you know in general what the parental controls offer and before looking at each option in detail, we will explain how to configure the parental controls of the Nintendo Switch.
Accounts, application and settings
To manage the parental controls of the Nintendo Switch, the first thing is to have an adult account associated with the console and the Parental Control application that is available for both iOS and Android. You can download them from these links.
Once you have it, if you log in with the same account to which the console is associated, you will see that it appears in the app. You would be ready to access all these parental control options. But what happens if it is the minor’s account that is linked as the main one to the console. Well, you have to delete it.
However, before deleting the profile to unlink the console, you should know that the data of the games will also be lost. If you don’t want this to happen, you will have to make a backup through the cloud saving options. This is a simple process, because you only have to have a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. When the console is in standby mode and connected to the internet, it will be done.
Now that you have everything, it’s time to register the console to activate the parental controls. These are the steps you have to follow:
- Install the Parental Control application on your smartphone
- Log in with your Nintendo account and the linked console will appear
- Turn on your Nintendo Switch
- Access the configuration settings of the Switch and then Parental Control
- Now you have to enter the registration code that appears in the phone application
- Once done, you will confirm the user to link and that’s it
Finally, in the mobile application you can link several Nintendo Switch consoles. And any adjustments related to parental controls will be made from now on from the application itself.
Parental controls Nintendo Switch, what do you offer?
Since you already know how to link an account and you have everything you need to manage parental controls, let’s see the options included in the application and how they affect the gaming experience of minors.
The first thing you will see in the application is that you have three sections. The first one is Game time and it gives you information on how long the console has been used. It is information that is updated daily each time the console is active.
Then you have Monthly Summary, where you see the information for the previous month. It is like the above, but with a more global view to have another perspective of use. And finally there are the Settings , where you can set time limits to play, restriction level and password.
Fixed limit to play and Restriction level
This option allows you to set the maximum time you allow them to use the console . A value that you can set individually for days or for all. Here you must assess which option interests you the most. For example, during some days of the week you can allow them a little while and on the weekends a little more time.
There is also the good night alarm , which also works as a restriction and after a certain time the console can no longer be used. This alarm goes into operation regardless of whether the maximum time set has been met or not. That is, if the limit is one hour and the alarm is set for 7:00 p.m., if you start playing at 6:30 p.m. you will only be able to play for half an hour.
By the way, it is important that you know that these limitations apply to the console in general, not to an individual profile.
The level of restriction is supported by Nintendo’s ratings of its content so that you can easily filter what they can and cannot play. To do this, you have to define the age through a series of options ranging from: Undefined, Adolescent, Child, Small child and personalized.
The last option is the one that allows more control, since although at certain ages you can allow access to said content, but not to functions such as communication with other users or vice versa. Here it is a matter of seeing all the possibilities to adjust according to your needs.
For example, with the Custom option you can manually select if there will be restrictions by age classification, whether or not they can publish captures and videos, if they will have communication with other users or use the VR mode of Nintendo Switch.
How to prevent purchases from minors
Finally, although this is already more common than is known, if your Nintendo Online account is linked to a credit card, the little ones could make unauthorized purchases. To avoid this, simply create their Supervised profile and add a password to your main account linked to the Nintendo Switch.
This supervised or not account adjustment is made when creating the same from the console or from the Nintendo website, within the Family Group options.
From now on you will have everything under control and your children or minors will be in charge or they will spend more time than they should playing or access content that is not suitable for them.
