Sony is finally catching up to something Nintendo and Microsoft have had for years. The new PlayStation Family app mainly serves as a mobile extension of on-console parental controls. However, parents also get a few extra perks in the mobile version.
The app includes a “thoughtfully guided” onboarding process. (I imagine many people will prefer their phone or tablet over the console for that.) Once things are set up, parents can do everything they already could on the console. This includes setting playtime limits, viewing activity reports (daily and weekly), managing spending and creating content filters. Parents can also use the app to configure privacy settings for social features.
One of the mobile app’s nicer perks is real-time notifications of what the child is playing. Parents can also approve or deny requests from their children for extra playtime or access to restricted games from within the app. That feature will likely get a lot of use.
Although it’s a welcome rollout, Sony is quite late to the party. The Xbox Family Settings app launched over five years ago. Nintendo’s parental controls came even earlier, alongside the original Switch’s arrival.
The app starts rolling out globally starting today. If you don’t see it yet, you can try the storefront links for iOS or Android.
