You can use a smart device to supervise your child's gameplay and set rules for how your child plays Nintendo Switch. This can be helpful if you're concerned about how long your child plays for and what sort of games they play.

If you want to take advantage of this feature, you'll need to download the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app free of charge.

Nintendo Switch Parental Controls

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If you don't own a smart device, you can still set some Parental Controls restrictions using your console.

Checking what's been played and for how long

You can use your smart device to check what games your child plays and how long they play for.

Knowing what your child is playing and how often could help you work out what they're interested in and could give you something fun to talk with them about.

Set a daily play time limit

You can set a limit to how long the console can be used each day. If you set a daily play time limit, a notification will appear on the screen of the Nintendo Switch console when time's up.

Enabling the "Suspend Software" feature will make the console go into sleep mode as soon as the set time is reached.

You could work out what sort of rules you'd like to set together with your child.

Set restrictions on gameplay features

Nintendo Switch features can be restricted based on your child's age.

The features that are restricted differ depending on which of the three levels you set: "Young child", "Child" or "Teen".

For example, selecting "Child" restricts games rated for ages 13 and up, as well as features such as posting screenshots on social networks and communicating with other users within a game.

Custom settings are also available so you can tailor restrictions to your needs. This way you can restrict games rated for the exact age of your child and can also restrict features, such as posting screenshots to social networks and communicating with users, independently of age rating.

Features that can be restricted using Parental Controls

You can set it so that the following features can only be accessed by entering a PIN:

• Change region
• Adjust date and time
• Restore factory settings
• Save data & screenshots
• Delete users
• Internet settings
• Link to a Nintendo Account (this applies if your console region is set to Europe.)

If you have more than one child...

It's not possible to set Parental Controls restrictions individually for each user. Any settings apply to all people using the Nintendo Switch console. If you have more than one child using the console, please make sure you set restrictions appropriate for the youngest child.