Once upon a time, buying video games worked like purchasing anything else: you walked into a store, picked up the item, and paid the cashier. Those days are long gone. Today, the vast majority of games are purchased online and downloaded, without a physical product ever changing hands.
Unfortunately, this new approach to games distribution introduces entirely new complications for parents. In this blog post, we’ll cover the two biggest headaches:
- How can you purchase and download educational games for your child?
- How can you protect you child from seeing inappropriate materials?
This second point is especially important, because online video game retailers are much like online video streaming services (such as Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, etc.): they have a vast amount of content, and much of it is R-rated or worse. Fortunately, there are ways you can control what your child sees, and we’ll help you do exactly that.
Steam
Today, the single largest store for online game purchases is Steam. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the process of setting Steam up and enabling parental controls.
For the record, this is not a sponsored post, and we don’t have any business relationship with Steam.
Step 1: Create a Steam Account
Go to this webpage and create an account. Be sure to use an email account your child can’t access. Otherwise, they’ll be able to disable any parental controls you establish (we’ll discuss how to set up parental controls a little later in this guide).
Step 2: Install Steam and create a Steam Account
First off, keep in mind that you’ll need to install Steam on a personal computer (that is, a laptop or a desktop computer – not a tablet or a smart phone). It’s also worth mentioning that not all games support MacOS. If you’re thinking about purchasing a computer for school, you may be better off with a Windows computer.
To install Steam, go to this webpage and click “Install Steam”. This will begin downloading a small program onto your computer called “SteamSetup.exe”. Depending on your browser settings, you may see a pop-up asking you where you want to save the file. Once it has finished downloading, launch it. You can usually do this by clicking the name of the file somewhere in your browser; alternatively, you can double-click the file wherever it is located on your hard drive.
On a Windows computer, you’ll probably get a message asking “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” Click “yes”, and you should see a window that looks like this:
Just go through the install process like you would for any other software.
Step 3: Launch Steam
After Steam has finished installing, launch it. You’ll need to sign in using the account information you created in the previous step.
Step 4: Disable Mature Content
We’ll now make sure that Steam knows we don’t want to see any mature content.
At the top left of the screen is a button labeled “Steam”. Click it, and a drop-down menu will appear. Click “Settings” in this drop-down menu.
This will bring up a window that looks like the following:
Click “Account” in the menu on the left side of the window, and then click “View Account Details”. This will take you to a new screen with some of your account information. Click the “Preferences” button on the left of this screen.
You should see something like the following:
Make sure none of the checkboxes shown under “Mature Content Filtering” are checked. This will help you avoid seeing some of the worst content available, but there will still be plenty of things you don’t want your child to see. Don’t worry – in the next step, we’ll discuss how you can control exactly which games your child is allow to see and play.
Step 5: Set Up Family View
We’ll now set up “Family View”, which allows parents complete control over their child’s access to content on Steam.
Once again, click “Steam” at the top left of the screen, and then click “Settings”.
Now click “Family” and then “Manage Family View”.
You’ll now see a screen that looks like the following:
The screen lets you set certain options for what you want your child to be able to access in Family View. I recommend setting these options as shown in the above image, which also happens to be the default. Go ahead and click “Next”.
You’ll see a screen that looks like this:
This screen allows you to select which games you want your child to be able to access. If you’ve never purchased games on Steam before, you won’t have any options, so just click “Next”.
You’ll now see the following screen:
Enter an email address your child can’t access. This email address can be used to disable family view in case you forget the PIN to turn it off. In most cases, the best option is to simply enter the same email address you used to create your Steam Account in Step 1. Click “Next”.
You’ll now see the following:
Select a 4-digit PIN and enter it. This PIN can only contain numbers; letters and special characters are not allowed. Choose something your child will not guess, and keep it secret. This is the password for turning Family View on and off. Click “Next”.
You’ll now see the following screen:
Within the next few minutes, if you check the email address you previously gave Steam, you should find an email that looks like the following:
Enter the secret code into the screen and click “Next”.
You’ve now finished setting up Family View. You should see a screen similar to the following, which explains more information about how to use Family View.
Step 6: Turning Family View On and Off
There should now be a button at the top right of Steam that looks like this:
When the button is red, you are not in Family View. You can switch to Family View by clicking it. When you see the following message, just click “OK”, and you’ll enter Family View.
The button will appear green while in Family View. If you want to exit Family View, click the button again. This time you’ll need to enter your PIN.
While in Family View, your child won’t have access to the store, or to any games you haven’t authorized them to have.
Step 7: Purchasing and Downloading Games
In order to purchase a new game, you’ll need to exit Family View. The store works much like any other online shop; you can search for specific games, add them to your cart, and then check out when you are ready.
The games won’t be playable until you’ve downloaded them. To do that, click “Library” at the top of the screen. You’ll see a list of all the games you own on the left side of the screen, like this:
Games you’ve downloaded will have bright white text (as shown by “Contraption Maker” in the image above). Games that haven’t been downloaded yet will appear more grey. To download a game, click it in this list, and then click the big blue “Install” button.
After the download has finished, the blue “Install” button will turn into a green “Run” button. You can launch the game by clicking it.
Step 8: Adding Games to Family View
Family View only permits your child to play the games you specifically add to Family View. To add games to Family View, first click “Library” at the top of the screen.
To add a game to Family View, so that your child is able to play it, simply right click on the game in the left side of the screen, hover over “Manage” in the menu, and then click “Add to Family Games”. The game can now be played by your child while in Family View.
That’s everything you need to do! When you’re ready for your child to play, just turn on Family View and hand over the keyboard.
A Cautionary Word
With Family View on, you can feel considerably better about your child’s computer experience, and you don’t need to worry about your child accidentally seeing inappropriate material on Steam.
That having been said, we would like to offer one more important piece of advice for keeping your child safe: your child’s computer should remain in a visible, well-trafficked space in the house. No matter how many tools you use to help protect your child against the dangers of computers and the internet, clever young minds will find a way around them, if given too long a leash. Nothing will ever encourage good behavior quite as effectively as the fear that Mom or Dad could walk around the corner at any moment.
Purchasing Games Cheaply
Finally, here’s bonus tip: Steam frequently offers deep sales on its video games, often marking prices down by 75% percent or more! The challenge is that these sales usually only last for a few days. You could keep checking the store constantly to search for sales, but there is better way: when you view a game in the Steam store, click the “Add to wishlist” button. You’ll now be notified via email whenever the game goes on sale (as long as you haven’t opted out of Steam messages).
Whenever you become aware of a new game you would like to purchase, I suggest that you add it to your Steam wishlist. If you can anticipate which educational games you want your child to play at least a year ahead of time, it’s highly likely you can get them at a fraction of the normal cost. In this blog, we’ll give you plenty of game recommendations, so you’ll be able to do that without any trouble!
