How do I set up parental controls on a Nintendo Switch?

The easiest way to set up parental controls on a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 is Nintendo’s free Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app for iPhone and Android. Once it’s linked to the console, you can set a daily play time limit and a bedtime, block games above your child’s age rating, and control who they can chat with, all from your own phone (Nintendo). Spending is handled separately, in your Nintendo Account. Set aside ten to fifteen minutes and you’ll have the lot done.

These steps are based on Nintendo’s current UK and Ireland help pages. Menus can move a little between console updates, so if something looks different, the linked pages are the place to check.

Before you start

You’ll need (Nintendo):

• Your own phone (iPhone or Android) with an internet connection.
• A Nintendo Account for you, the adult. It has to belong to someone aged 18 or over. You can create one during set-up if you don’t have one.
• The console, switched on and connected to the internet.

One thing worth knowing from the start: parental controls apply to the whole console, not to each player. Nintendo suggests setting them with the youngest person who plays it in mind (Nintendo). If a teenager and a six-year-old share one Switch, you can let specific games through with the “safelist” (more on that below).

Step 1: Link the app to the console

These are Nintendo’s steps for a Switch 2; the original Switch works the same way through System Settings (Nintendo):

1. On your phone, download Nintendo Switch Parental Controls from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Open the app, tap Start and follow the introduction.
3. Sign in to your Nintendo Account (or create one). The app then shows a six-digit registration code.
4. On the console, go to the HOME Menu and open System Settings > Parental Controls > Parental Controls Settings, then choose the option for people who’ve already downloaded the app.
5. Type in the six-digit code from your phone.
6. Select Link on the console, then confirm on both the console and your phone.

If the console says Change Settings instead, parental controls were already set up without the app. Enter the PIN and choose the option to use the free app, then carry on from step 4. One app can manage up to eight consoles.

Step 2: Choose the settings that matter

In the app, tap Parental Controls at the bottom right. Save each setting with the red Save button; the changes reach the console next time it’s online (Nintendo).

Play Time Limit. Set a daily limit (up to six hours), or a different limit for each day of the week, so weekends can be a bit longer. On the day, you can add 5, 15 or 30 minutes from your phone, or switch the limit off for that day.

Bedtime. Set a time after which the console can’t be played, plus an optional wake-up time in the morning.

Suspend Software. By default, the console just shows a notice when time is up. If you choose Suspend Software at Set Time, the game stops instead. Internet Matters points out that this can mean lost progress if your child is mid-game, which is worth weighing up (Internet Matters). Many families start with the notice and agree that “time’s up means save and stop”.

Restriction Level. Pick a preset (Young Child, Child or Teen) or choose Custom. Each preset is tied to a game age rating (Nintendo’s table lists 8+ for Young Child, 13+ for Child and 17+ for Teen), and the two younger levels also limit posting and chatting (Nintendo). The console uses your region’s age-rating system by default. Custom lets you set:

• Restricted Software: the highest age rating allowed.
• Posting screenshots and videos to social networks: on or off.
• Free Communication With Others: limits chat and messaging, across all games or game by game.
• VR Mode: Nintendo advises restricting it for children aged 6 or under.

Safelist. Lets chosen games through the restrictions without a PIN. A game only appears in the list once it has been played on the console, and safelisted games still count towards the time limit.

PIN. The app shows your PIN, which you’ll need to change settings on the console itself. Nintendo suggests keeping the console out of the dock when entering it, so it doesn’t show up on the TV for the whole room to see.

Step 3: Turn off surprise spending

Spending isn’t in the app. It’s in your Nintendo Account, and your child’s account needs to be a supervised account in your family group (a new account for a child aged 15 or under, for example). Then (Nintendo):

1. Sign in to your Nintendo Account on the web.
2. Select Family Group and choose your child’s account.
3. Tick Spending Restrictions to block purchases and automatic renewals in the Nintendo eShop (the console’s shop).
4. Tick Age-Based Purchase Restrictions so the eShop only shows games suited to their age.
5. Select Save changes.

If you have a Switch 2: GameChat

Switch 2 has GameChat, which lets players talk, share screens and (with a camera) video chat while they play. Nintendo has built in some sensible defaults (Nintendo):

• Under-16s can only use GameChat once a parent has set up the parental controls app.
• They can only chat with people on their friend list, and you approve each friend before they can chat. You can take that approval back at any time.
• You decide whether video chat is allowed at all, and if so, how much of the picture is shown.
• The app shows you when GameChat was used and with whom.

GameChat also needs a paid Nintendo Switch Online membership, so it’s off the table unless you have one.

What to do next

• Tonight: download the app, link the console and set a daily limit and a bedtime. That covers the most common flashpoints.
• This week: sign in to your Nintendo Account and turn on Spending Restrictions, so nothing gets bought without you.
• Agree the “time’s up” routine with your child before the first limit kicks in, such as a two-minute warning to save. It’s far easier than arguing at the deadline.
• Look at it again in a few months. As your child gets older, you can loosen a setting or two together; it’s a nice way to show trust.

Every family’s limits will look a bit different, and that’s fine. The point is that the console does the reminding, so you don’t have to.