New Steam Families: Add ratings and settings to allow games that suit children by age

[Jahus]

Hello team!

I've been using "Steam Families" features since beta, and the ability to control which games my child can play has been fantastic. However, I think there’s an opportunity to enhance these parental controls further by incorporating age-based restrictions like those offered by Epic Games.

Epic Games lets parents manage what their child can play in Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, based on regional age ratings. For example, you can set limits like "Everyone", "Teen" or "Mature", or PEGI 7, PEGI 12, PEGI 16, etc. to control what content is accessible without needing a PIN.

This could be a perfect addition to Steam's existing system, allowing for granular control based on a child’s age. Having Steam adapt features like these would make it easier for parents to ensure their kids are playing age-appropriate content. It would also complement Steam’s existing features like playtime limits and activity report.

Thank you.

[Brian9824]

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6B1A-66BE-E911-3D98

You'd want to setup family view on the account that is family sharing, that will allow you to decide what games you can share. Its more granular letting you choose exactly what games you want available

[Jahus]

Originally posted by Brian9824:

Its more granular letting you choose exactly what games you want available

The new Steam Families does just that. It allows to choose which game a kid can have access to. It's not hard to use, but if you have a huge library, you might want to quickly set "this kid can have access to all 12+ or lower rated games".

For now, I just choose every game manually. That's why I'm suggesting the feature, instead of asking for a workaround.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Jahus:

Originally posted by Brian9824:

Its more granular letting you choose exactly what games you want available

The new Steam Families does just that. It allows to choose which game a kid can have access to. It's not hard to use, but if you have a huge library, you might want to quickly set "this kid can have access to all 12+ or lower rated games".

For now, I just choose every game manually. That's why I'm suggesting the feature, instead of asking for a workaround.

Unlikely to be a work around suince the current make up up would be consuidered to be superior.
To add another means they'd have to enable one to override the other. And if you al;ready have a scenario where one wiill supercede.. you may as well just have only that one.

[Brian9824]

Not to mention its dangerous since ratings are optional and not every game has a rating

[Jahus]

I don't understand why you're even commenting on this; it seems that your both opinions are set. I've suggested a feature, nothing more.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Jahus:

I don't understand why you're even commenting on this; it seems that your both opinions are set. I've suggested a feature, nothing more.

Yes, part of a discussion is pointing out the flaws in an idea and the limitations and why not every suggestion might be a good thing. Personally if they added it I wouldn't care, but it would be dangerous and not very accurate.

Ton of issues as mentioned such as unrated games, or the fact that games that are appropriate for a kid is subjective, not objective so everyone has a different view on what they should be allowed to play.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Jahus:

I don't understand why you're even commenting on this; it seems that your both opinions are set. I've suggested a feature, nothing more.

Thing is that the value of such a feature is questionable. For starters because not all games have such ratings. Secondly because those ratings are highly subjective anyway, it's up to parents to decide what goes or not.

Personally I'm not in favor of these blanket ratings as a whole. I'm noticing more and more that other parents rely on them without even looking at the content or questioning things. People stop thinking, that's not good.

[William Shakesman]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by Jahus:

I don't understand why you're even commenting on this; it seems that your both opinions are set. I've suggested a feature, nothing more.

Thing is that the value of such a feature is questionable. For starters because not all games have such ratings. Secondly because those ratings are highly subjective anyway, it's up to parents to decide what goes or not.

Personally I'm not in favor of these blanket ratings as a whole. I'm noticing more and more that other parents rely on them without even looking at the content or questioning things. People stop thinking, that's not good.

Even garbage metrics are going to get you better results than asking people to take on solo the mental load of parsing hundreds of games. Some thinking really is too much.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Thing is that the value of such a feature is questionable. For starters because not all games have such ratings. Secondly because those ratings are highly subjective anyway, it's up to parents to decide what goes or not.

Personally I'm not in favor of these blanket ratings as a whole. I'm noticing more and more that other parents rely on them without even looking at the content or questioning things. People stop thinking, that's not good.

Even garbage metrics are going to get you better results than asking people to take on solo the mental load of parsing hundreds of games. Some thinking really is too much.

I disagree.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Thing is that the value of such a feature is questionable. For starters because not all games have such ratings. Secondly because those ratings are highly subjective anyway, it's up to parents to decide what goes or not.

Personally I'm not in favor of these blanket ratings as a whole. I'm noticing more and more that other parents rely on them without even looking at the content or questioning things. People stop thinking, that's not good.

Even garbage metrics are going to get you better results than asking people to take on solo the mental load of parsing hundreds of games. Some thinking really is too much.

Not really that hard, its called parenting. I know its a novel concept to some but its not exactly difficult. Far better then going by what some other random people think is appropriate for your kids.

I mean just because you can't handle the mental load of looking at a game and deciding if its appropriate for your kids doesn't mean others are incapable of that mental load. Not sure why you think it takes multiple people to decide for you if a game is appropriate for YOUR child.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Thing is that the value of such a feature is questionable. For starters because not all games have such ratings. Secondly because those ratings are highly subjective anyway, it's up to parents to decide what goes or not.

Personally I'm not in favor of these blanket ratings as a whole. I'm noticing more and more that other parents rely on them without even looking at the content or questioning things. People stop thinking, that's not good.

Even garbage metrics are going to get you better results than asking people to take on solo the mental load of parsing hundreds of games. Some thinking really is too much.

Not really. A Garbage metric that the parent doesn't understand is worse than no metric at all. The Best metric is the parent's own judgement. And as for parsing hundreds of games... One The parent likely knows which games they own that are questionable and no-no's. Nevermiond that ratings aren't set in stone either. I mean the film ratings boards are famous for that. PG-13 used to mean something entirely different in the 80's than it does now.


And secondly...yeah that's called parenting. You're gonna have to put in a little effort for the 'bundles of joy' you brought into the world.

I mean I have literally hundreds of games but I know which 30 or so are adults only, and which hundred aren't for anyone under 10.

[William Shakesman]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

Even garbage metrics are going to get you better results than asking people to take on solo the mental load of parsing hundreds of games. Some thinking really is too much.

I disagree.

I am not into this libertarian, totally individualist view of parenting. We had 20 years of mocking people wanting content censored for the kids and then suddenly the turnaround is "Do it yourself, its easy." You are asking them to make 500 judgment calls, they are going to get quite a few wrong. That is what being human actually is. People are not wrong for wanting help on what SHOULD by rights be a solved problem because theoretically raising kids is the most important and common task in society.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

[You are asking them to make 500 judgment calls, they are going to get quite a few wrong.

False, they are making 1 judgement call on what content they feel is appropriate for their kids. Your suggestion would result in far more wrong calls because they trusted someone elses view instead of their own on what their kid would find acceptable.

Fun fact, some schools for instance are removing books from school libraries that are age appropriate but contain content they FEEL isnt appropriate for kids even though the rating agencies disagree.

Many countries for instance don't see anything wrong with nudity and they would be fine if a game contained nudity with a 12 year old. Someone else wouldn't want gun violence, or drug use, someone else wouldn't want swearing.

There is no standard or replacement to parenting. If its too hard for them well not everyone needs to have kids if they are afraid of work. I research games for my kids before I buy them for instance. That involves reading reviews, watching videos, etc.

I don't just go, oh its rated X? I'll just buy it blindly and hope its appropriate.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

I disagree.

I am not into this libertarian, totally individualist view of parenting. We had 20 years of mocking people wanting content censored for the kids and then suddenly the turnaround is "Do it yourself, its easy."

And i am not into this outsourcing of parenting. Basically when it comes to censorship, you either make the call yourself, or outsource the decision to some rando you don't know.

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

You are asking them to make 500 judgment calls, they are going to get quite a few wrong.

That's false. They bought the games themselves. So they should have an idea of how many games in their library meet given crirteria they have. Secondly, game titles can be pretty obvious.
So the most egregious titles are gonna be easy to spot.

As for the less egregious titles. Well. Again. It doesn't take 5 minutes to do a little research into the game to see if it is something you want your kiddies to see. I mean you talk about ratings but are you actually aware of the sort of themes, subject matter and such that are allowed under given ratings?

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

That is what being human actually is. People are not wrong for wanting help on what SHOULD by rights be a solved problem because theoretically raising kids is the most important and common task in society.

Irt can't be a solved problem because quite frankly society and it's norms keep changing. Again. Look back at films releaed in the 80's. Look at what got classified as PG and PG-13 back then.

Parenting takes work. and no one said you have to do your entire library in a day. You start monday, and you spend an hour going through your library each day. in alphabetical order.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Jahus:

I don't understand why you're even commenting on this; it seems that your both opinions are set. I've suggested a feature, nothing more.

Almost as if that's the nature of a public forum, for others to be able to discuss. Valve may or may not make any changes, if you are that pressed on the matter go through your library and select which games you don't want your child to have access to. This could be delegated to someone else to do on your behalf (ie auto select), however there will be the inevitable post from others "How can Valve determine what is right for my child with auto select?" and we are back at square one.