Right then, we got our Son an XboxOne for his B'day last year.
I set the account up in my name with my email address and paypal account - so he has to ask to buy stuff etc.
Now what I want to do is change the email to one for him so that I can set up some 'screen time' restrictions.
It seems to do this I have to add as a family member - but to do this it needs another email address, so if i set him up an address can I swap his gamer tag and all his kudos (or whatever ti is on Xbox....) to this new email address?
The long and short of it he's spending more time on it than we want and getting him off turns into an argument (yes I know - rod, back etc...), so i want to add some screen time restrictions.
The microsoft help function isn't very helpful...
I’m not sure it can be done. Microsoft Family works really well, but you’ll need to set up an account for him unless you can set screen time limits on yourself (I don’t think you can) so he’ll have to start most games afresh.
Personally I’d engineer a ‘disaster’ that’s lost all his data, get over that tantrum and start with a clean sheet.
Fair warning, when the time gets close to running you they can ‘send a request’ for more time - I’m fairly sure my name is ‘I’ve sent a request’ these days...
Someone will no doubt shortly post something about “raising your kids properly” or something...
Are you looking to have a culmulative total time per day (ie he can play when he wants, up to a certain number of minutes), or restrictions at certain times of day, for example, no playing after 9pm?
If it's the latter, you can just do it by blocking his xbox connection via the router at certain times.
I found the Xbox a/c thing pretty labyrinthine to deal with as well.
I see a negotiated/ultimatum based solution here....
If you keep arguing about switch off times then I will stick you on a child account where I can set the limits.
Oh and by the way if I have to do that all your game progress will go down the toilet and you'll have to start again.
3 strikes and its new account time.
I think the other input above about what you can and cannot do is right btw .
1) Tell him to do as he's told. You're the parent here, no?
2) Confiscate controller. Return controller after a period of time proportional to how long 1) didn't apply.
3) Get on to Microsoft support, they might be able to do what you ask.
I set my sons xbox up the same, you can set up a child account and still play the same games but he’ll lose all his progress etc. Tough one as all my lads are on it all the time so he asks why he has to come off. Just tell him Xbox can be on between 5 and 7 say then it’s off. That’s what we did.
Maybe a different technical approach would be to set up a new Microsoft Live account for you and then change the current one to all be in his name? Remove the payment method from it, convert it to a child account by setting the DOB, change the email address, and then apply the parental controls to it and link it to your new adult account? He'll keep his gamer tag and achievements then.
FWIW my kids have screen time limits set on all their devices including the Xbox. We find it actually works better than us taking controllers away, as the device is impersonal. When the Xbox says it's out of time, they can't argue with it, so they just stop and do something else.
Thanks all.
Couple of options to investigate.
Have recently been through this, largely fortnite driven. It became clear Nem Jnr couldn't self police. Created a new child account and had to re friend his mates. Fortnite can transfer to the new account because it's linked to a fortnite account but some other games progress was lost. He wasn't happy but knew that was the consequence if self policing wasn't working. It has meant that he can't play fortnite with friend who aren't also on xbox though (restriction on a child account I think)
Yeah Fortnite is the issue here.
I do Hate fortnite it’s the bane of my life with Wookster Jr it’s designed to fleece children. I fight regular battles over it he was moments away from a total ban yesterday.
I recommend the limits on the router if you want to go down a tech back up to you laying down the law as it’s very quick. Ours you can change the access between each day as well if you wanted.
I recommend the limits on the router if you want to go down a tech back up to you laying down the law as it’s very quick. Ours you can change the access between each day as well if you wanted.
Thanks for the advice.
Will have to look at the router but assume you limit access for a Xbox's mac address?
Can you schedule different tes of day etc.?
Will have to look at the router but assume you limit access for a Xbox’s mac address?
Depends on the router, but yes, every device will come up with its own address, and you can normally set hours it is allowed on the network.
Until, presumably, he works out how to spoof the address, but I'm guessing that's quite hard on an Xbox!