Steam parental controls — Steam Families, step-by-step

Last verified 2026-05-05

To set up Steam parental controls in 2026, use Steam Families — the current system that replaced the older Family View. Both you and your kid need real Steam accounts. From the Family Management page, create a Family, invite your kid as a Child, then set their allowed games, daily playtime limit, and purchase-approval flow. Family View still exists for legacy single-account setups but is being phased out.

  • Reading time: about 9 minutes
  • Time to set up: about 15 minutes
  • What you’ll need: your Steam account, the kid’s Steam account, both signed in to Steam (desktop or app)

What you’ll learn

  • Why Steam Families replaced Family View in 2024 — and which one to use
  • How to set up a Family and invite your kid as a Child member
  • How to set allowed games, daily playtime limits, and purchase-approval flow
  • What Steam parental controls don’t cover (most launchers your kid uses)

The 60-second version

  • Use Steam Families, not Family View. Family View is the legacy PIN-on-one-account flow; Steam Families is the current group-based system.
  • Each person has their own Steam account. Add your kid as a Child member of your Family.
  • Pick allowed games from the shared Family library. Default is all; restrict for younger kids.
  • Daily playtime limit covers all Steam time, not per-game. Pair with Microsoft Family Safety per-app caps for per-game.
  • Purchase requests route to you via email or the Steam mobile app. Approve from your phone.

Family View vs Steam Families — the important context

Most "Steam parental controls" articles you find online still describe Family View. That information is not wrong, but it’s no longer the recommended path.

In 2024, Steam launched Steam Families, which combined the older Family Sharing (library sharing) and Family View (PIN-protected child profile) features into a single group-based system. Steam Families is what Valve points new users to. Family View still works for legacy single-account setups but is being deprecated in favour of Families.

How they differ:

  • Family View (legacy): a PIN-protected restricted mode on a single Steam account. Useful when one Steam account was shared by multiple people. Now uncommon.
  • Steam Families (current): each person has their own Steam account. The parent creates a Family of up to 6 members; each member is assigned an Adult or Child role. The Child role gets time limits, allowed-games filtering, and purchase-request routing. Each person keeps their own friends list, achievements, and saves.

If you’re setting this up fresh in 2026, use Steam Families. The rest of this guide assumes you are.

  1. Step 1: Set up Family Management

    Both you and your kid need real Steam accounts. Add your kid to your Steam friends list (this makes them findable in the next step).

    Go to store.steampowered.com/account/familymanagement or, in the Steam client, open the top-right menu → Family → Create a Family.

    Screenshot placeholder: Family Management page, Create a Family. To be added by the designer.

    Click Invite a Member, search your kid’s friend-list name, choose Invite as Child, send. The kid accepts the invite from their own Steam account.

    Once they accept, they’re a Child member of your Family. You’ll see their profile in the Family Management dashboard.

  2. Step 2: Allowed games

    In the kid’s profile inside Family Management, you’ll see the list of titles in the Family library. Default is all. Restrict to a subset for younger kids.

    Practical advice: set the allowed list as an allowlist, not a blocklist. Pick the games your kid actually plays plus a few you’d be fine with them trying. New games added to your library don’t auto-allow until you say so.

    Why this matters: if a friend gifts your kid a game, it lands in the Family library. If your list is a blocklist, that gift becomes accessible by default. An allowlist keeps the gate closed.

  3. Step 3: Daily playtime limit

    In the kid’s profile, toggle on the daily playtime limit. Set hours per day. Set an allowed time-of-day window (e.g., no Steam after 9pm).

    Screenshot placeholder: daily playtime limit + time-of-day window. To be added by the designer.

    Steam ends sessions at the cap. If your kid is mid-game, they get a few-minute warning before disconnect. They can request more time via the Steam mobile app, which routes to you for approval.

  4. Step 4: Purchase requests

    For Child members, configure purchases to require parent approval. The kid adds items to a cart and submits to an Adult in the Family for approval.

    Approval comes via email or a Steam mobile app notification. You tap approve or decline. Payment comes from your saved method — the kid never sees a card.

    Useful pattern: combine this with not saving a card on the kid’s account at all. The purchase-request flow handles legitimate buys; the no-card-on-kid policy stops everything else.

  5. Step 5: Friends and chat

    Each Child member keeps their own friends list. The Child role applies some chat and store-access restrictions on top.

    Sit down with your kid and walk through their friends list. The same rule from our other guides applies: friends are people they know in real life. Anyone they don’t recognize, anyone with a wall-of-numbers username, anyone they "met online once" — remove.

    Steam users older than 12 or so usually also use Discord. See our Discord guide for that side of the conversation; the Steam controls only reach as far as Steam.

Legacy Family View (still available, less recommended)

Family View is a PIN-protected restricted mode on a single Steam account. Settings live in Steam client → Settings → Family → Manage Family View.

Use case: a single shared computer where a parent shares their library with a kid via one account. In 2026, this is uncommon. Steam now nudges these users to migrate to Steam Families.

If you have an existing Family View setup that’s working, you don’t need to break it. New setups should use Families.

What this can’t do

  • Per-game time limits. Steam Families enforces a single daily cap across all Steam — not "30 min Fortnite, 60 min Minecraft." Use Microsoft Family Safety app-limits for that.
  • Voice chat in third-party apps that Steam launches. A game’s own voice is the game’s responsibility, not Steam’s.
  • External launchers. Many kids’ games don’t run via Steam. Fortnite (Epic), Roblox (Roblox Player), Minecraft (Minecraft Launcher). Steam Families only governs Steam.
  • Mod-installed content. Steam Workshop content for an allowed game still installs.
  • Family-friend gifts. Anyone can gift a game to your kid’s account. The gift lands in their library; if it’s on the allowed list, they can play it. Hence the allowlist recommendation in Step 2.

Common mistakes

  • Mixing up Steam Families and Family View. Most articles online still describe Family View. Always describe Families first.
  • Setting up a Family but never marking the kid as Child. An Adult member has no controls applied.
  • Using a single shared Steam account for the family. Steam Families requires individual accounts. The single-account approach was Family View; it’s being phased out.
  • Not realising the daily limit is total Steam time, not per-game. The MS Family Safety app-limit per launcher is the per-game answer.
  • Expecting Steam Families to manage Epic or Roblox. It can’t. Each launcher has its own controls; the OS layer is the unifier.

Have the conversation

Steam tends to come into a kid’s life around 11 or 12, often as their first multi-launcher experience. The big shift is that they have a library now — titles they own, titles friends share, titles in their wishlist. It feels different than the always-online live-service games we cover elsewhere.

That shift is a good time to talk about ownership and waiting. A wishlist is a list of things they want, not a list of things they get. Sales come around. Birthdays come around. The conversation about not buying every game on the wishlist the day after a sale starts is part of how the parental controls actually work — the purchase-request flow gives you a moment to say "let’s wait a week and see if you still want it."

Also: walk through their friends list with them. Steam friends are sticky — people add each other after a single game and stay friends for years. Periodic clean-up is healthy.

Printable PDF checklist — the six steps in this guide on one page. If you bought a PC from us, it’s in the Parental Controls Kit that ships in the box.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Family View and Steam Families?

Family View is the older PIN-protected restricted-mode on a single Steam account. Steam Families (launched in 2024) is the current system — each person has their own account, a parent creates a Family group, and the kid joins as a Child role. Steam Families is what we recommend; Family View still exists for legacy holdouts but is being deprecated.

Can my kid see adult-themed games in the store?

With Steam Families set up and the kid as a Child member, the store filters mature content based on the role. Some adult-themed games still surface in search if filters aren't configured. Combine Steam Families with the OS-level content rating ceiling in Microsoft Family Safety for the strongest result.

Does it work on Steam Deck?

Yes — Steam Families is account-level, so it follows your kid's Steam account onto a Steam Deck just like a desktop. If the Steam Deck is the kid's primary device, see our Steam Deck context in the PC vs handheld article (linked below).

Can my kid have their own friends list?

Yes. With Steam Families, each person has their own account and their own friends list. The Child role keeps the friends list intact while applying time and game limits set by the parent. You can also manage who they can chat with via the chat-restriction settings on the Child role.

What if my kid forgets the PIN?

For Steam Families, there's no PIN — the parent (Adult role) recovers access via their own account. For legacy Family View, the PIN can be reset using the recovery email tied to the Steam account. Either way, plan for recovery before you need it.

Will it block third-party game launchers (Epic, GOG)?

No. Steam Families only governs Steam. Many kid-relevant games run via other launchers: Fortnite via Epic, Roblox via Roblox Player, Minecraft via the Minecraft Launcher. Each has its own controls — see the Epic, Roblox, and Minecraft guides — or use Microsoft Family Safety app limits to cap them at the OS level.

Last verified 2026-05-05 · Next sweep due 2026-08-05