Short answer: Steam's parental controls are called Family View. To enable them: open Steam, go to Settings, then Family, then click "Manage" under Family View. Set a PIN, choose which games your child can access, and lock Community features and the Steam Store. Setup takes about five minutes. Family View is free and built into every Steam account. The most important setting to enable is the Community restriction, which stops your child from accessing public profiles, forums, and friend requests from strangers.
Steam does not make parental controls easy to find, and the options available are not as prominent as they should be for a platform that millions of children use. This guide covers exactly what Family View does, how to set it up step by step, what it does not cover (and what to do about those gaps), and which games are safe enough that the game itself needs no additional safeguarding at all.
We have a stake in this conversation because Noun Town, our language learning game, is on Steam. But we also have years of experience running online gaming communities and have seen firsthand what can go wrong when children are not properly protected in online spaces. That experience shapes how we think about these issues, and we want to give parents an honest picture rather than a reassuring one.
If you have not read our overview of Steam safety for parents, Is Steam Safe for Kids? is worth reading first. This guide goes deeper on the controls themselves.
Family View is Steam's built-in parental control system. It works by placing a PIN-protected lock over features you want to restrict. When Family View is active, your child can only access what you have explicitly approved. To get past the lock and access anything else, they need your PIN.
Here is a clear summary of what it can and cannot control:
| Feature | Can Family View control it? |
|---|---|
| Which games your child can play | Yes — you approve specific titles |
| Steam Store access (browsing and buying) | Yes — can be blocked entirely |
| Community features (profiles, forums, friend requests) | Yes — can be disabled |
| Account settings changes | Yes — locked behind PIN |
| Multiplayer within an approved game | No — controlled game by game, not by Family View |
| Discord links on game store pages | No — not blocked by Family View |
| Time limits on play sessions | No — use device-level controls for this |
| Usage reports and play history | No — Steam does not offer parental usage reports |
The gaps in that list are important and we will cover them in detail below. First, here is how to set up the controls that do exist.
These steps apply to the Steam desktop application on Windows and Mac. The layout is the same on both platforms.
Open Steam and make sure you are logged into your account (the parent account, not your child's). Click on Steam in the top-left menu bar (on Mac) or look for your account name in the top-right corner. Open Settings.
In Settings, click on Family in the left-hand sidebar. You will see a section called "Family View" near the top of the page. Click the Manage button.
Steam will walk you through a short setup wizard. The first question asks what features you want to make available without a PIN. Our recommendation: leave everything unticked except the games you want your child to play. Specifically, make sure you leave the following locked (unticked): Steam Store, Steam Community (online features), Friends & Chat, and account settings.
You will then see your game library and be asked which games to include in the "unlocked" view. Tick only the specific games you have reviewed and approved for your child. Any game not ticked will require your PIN to launch.
Set your Family View PIN. This is a separate code from your Steam account password. Choose something your child cannot easily guess. You will need this PIN whenever you want to change settings, add new games to the approved list, or access the full account yourself.
Add a recovery email address when prompted. If you forget your PIN, Steam will use this email to send a reset link. Use your own email address, not your child's.
Click Save or Finish. Family View is now active. You can test it by logging out and back in, or by switching to Family View mode using the option in the top-right Steam menu. Your child will now see only the games you approved and none of the locked features.
To update the approved game list later, log into Family View with your PIN, go back to Settings, then Family, then Manage. You can add or remove games at any time without changing the PIN or other settings.
If there is one setting you must get right, it is the Community restriction. Steam Community gives users public profiles, the ability to send and receive friend requests from anyone, access to game discussion forums, and a general social feed. With this unlocked, any user on Steam can attempt to contact your child.
Locking Community features does not just hide the friends list. It removes the entire social layer from your child's Steam experience. They see their approved games, and nothing else. No profiles to click on, no forums to browse, no way to receive or send friend requests. For younger children, this is the right setting.
As your child gets older and you want to introduce supervised social features, you can unlock specific elements while keeping others locked. But starting with everything locked and relaxing over time is a safer approach than the reverse.
Family View is useful but not comprehensive. Here are the gaps parents need to understand.
Family View controls which games are accessible, but it does not restrict online features within a game that is in the approved library. If you approve a game that has an online multiplayer mode, your child can access that mode. The safest approach is to only approve games that are entirely single-player, rather than relying on Family View to police what happens inside the game.
This is why game selection matters as much as Family View settings. Before approving any game, look at its Steam store page and check the feature tags on the right side. Tags like "Single-player" and "No online features required" are what you want. Tags like "Online PvP," "Online Co-op," or "Multiplayer" mean the game has an online component that Family View cannot restrict.
This is the gap that catches most parents off guard. Many Steam games link to their Discord server directly from their store page. Discord is a messaging and voice chat platform where most game communities gather. If your child has access to the Steam Store (which you can prevent with Family View), they can click a Discord invite and join a chat community that Steam has no control over.
Some of these communities are well-managed. Many are not. The quality of moderation varies enormously from server to server, and there is no industry standard for what a "safe" game Discord looks like.
To give you a real example: the Super Hyper Mega Discord server (the community for our games, including Noun Town) has been running for years with a dedicated team of long-serving moderators who are active every day. They enforce a clear code of conduct, respond to reports quickly, and remove harmful content before it lingers. We built it this way deliberately, because we know from running online communities what happens when you do not. But this level of moderation investment is not common. Many smaller game communities run Discord servers with one or two volunteer moderators who are rarely around, and some have no active moderation at all.
The practical advice here is: block Steam Store access via Family View, which eliminates the route to Discord links entirely. If your child is old enough to access the store and you allow Discord participation, join the server yourself first and make your own assessment before your child sets foot in it.
Steam Family View does not include session time limits or daily play limits. If you want to set boundaries on how long your child plays, you need to use your device's operating system controls alongside Steam:
These device-level tools are worth setting up regardless of what you do on Steam, because they give you a safety net that applies to every application on the computer, not just the gaming platform.
The ideal setup is a Family View with Community locked and only inherently safe, single-player games in the approved library. For games in this category, the game itself presents no safety concerns. The only risks are at the platform level, and Family View handles those.
Noun Town is a clear example of a game in this category.
A 3D language learning game for 12 languages. There is no multiplayer, no in-game chat, no player profiles, no friend requests, and no connection to other users of any kind. The content is entirely educational. Children explore a world, hear native speaker audio for vocabulary, and practice speaking using speech recognition. There is nothing in the game itself that requires parental restriction. Add it to the Family View approved list and your child can play it without any further concern about what they are being exposed to.
View on Steam →
A physics and engineering simulation where players design and launch spacecraft. The single-player campaign covers genuine orbital mechanics and engineering concepts in an engaging way. No multiplayer, no chat, no online features required. Suitable for ages 10 and up, and genuinely educational in ways most games are not.
View on Steam →
A spatial reasoning and physics puzzle game with one of the best single-player campaigns in gaming. No violence, no adult content, and the single-player mode has no online features. Note that Portal 2 includes a separate co-operative multiplayer mode. If you add it to the approved library, have a conversation with your child about sticking to the single-player campaign. The campaign alone is excellent.
View on Steam →
A farming and life simulation with no violence, calm pacing, and a huge amount of content. The single-player experience is entirely self-contained and appropriate for children. Stardew Valley has an optional online multiplayer mode, so the same advice applies as with Portal 2: play the single-player mode and leave multiplayer for later.
View on Steam →Parental controls are a tool, not a substitute for conversation. Children who understand why certain things are restricted tend to respect those restrictions better, and they are better equipped to handle situations that controls cannot anticipate.
A few things worth discussing with your child, at an age-appropriate level:
These conversations are more effective than any settings menu, and they set a foundation that continues to matter as your child grows into the kinds of spaces that are harder to control.
To summarise everything in this guide, here is what a well-protected Steam setup looks like for a younger child:
That is a thorough setup, but it does not take more than an hour to put in place. And for a platform that your child may be using for years, it is worth the time.
Looking for a safe game to add to your child's library? Noun Town needs no parental controls within the game itself.
Try Noun Town on SteamOpen Steam, go to Settings, then Family, then click Manage under Family View. Follow the wizard: choose features to lock, select approved games, set a PIN, and add a recovery email. Full step-by-step instructions are in the guide above.
Steam Family View is Steam's built-in parental control system. It lets you PIN-protect features including the game library, Steam Store, Community features, and account settings. When active, your child can only access what you have explicitly approved.
Family View can restrict which games appear in your child's library, but it cannot block online features within a game that is already approved. The safest approach is to only approve single-player games with no online component. Do not add multiplayer games to the approved list and rely on controls to block the multiplayer mode.
Yes. During Family View setup, leave the Steam Store locked (unticked). Your child will not be able to browse, search, or purchase games. They will only see their approved library.
Family View cannot block Discord links on store pages, set time limits on play sessions, provide usage reports, or control online features within an approved game. Use Windows Family Safety or Apple Screen Time alongside Family View to cover these gaps.
Yes. Games that are entirely single-player, have no in-game chat, and contain only age-appropriate content need no safeguarding beyond the platform-level controls. Noun Town is one example: no multiplayer, no chat, fully educational content. Platform controls (Community lock, Store lock) still apply.
The game itself is completely safe. No multiplayer, no player interaction, no in-game chat, and no NSFW content. Platform-level controls (locking the Steam Store and Community features) are still recommended so your child cannot browse beyond their approved library.
During initial Family View setup you select which games to approve. To update the list later: unlock Family View with your PIN, go to Settings, then Family, then Manage. Add or remove titles as needed and save.
The Steam PIN is the code that locks and unlocks Family View. It is separate from your Steam account password and is set during Family View setup. Keep it to yourself and choose something your child cannot guess.
Yes, and it is strongly recommended. Windows Family Safety and Apple Screen Time let you set time limits on Steam itself, control which apps can run, and monitor usage. These device-level controls complement Family View rather than replacing it.
Block Steam Store access via Family View to prevent your child reaching Discord links in the first place. If they are old enough to browse the store and you allow Discord participation, check the server yourself before they join. Look for active moderators, pinned rules, and appropriate public channels.
Join it yourself and look for: pinned community rules, visible active moderators, appropriate language in public channels, and a clear process for reporting harmful content. Well-run servers invest in these things. Many do not. Do not assume safety based on the game's reputation alone.
Yes. Family View is tied to the Steam account, not the device. It applies wherever your child logs into that account. However, if they log into a separate Steam account, Family View will not apply to that account. Make sure your child uses only the family account you have configured.
Not if the Steam Store is locked in Family View settings. With the store locked, your child cannot browse or purchase anything. Even with the store accessible, Steam requires account password confirmation for purchases, so they would need your password to buy.
Set up Family View now and have an open conversation. Check their friend list, recent game activity, and any community features they may have used. Approach it as an opportunity to get a clearer picture and put better structures in place, rather than as a disciplinary matter.