I'm not a parent, but I'm helping one set up filters on their 15 yr olds PC. Any help?

[neon/drifter]

Hey all,

Basically, I got a gaming laptop for a niece of mine. She super loves it and thats great. We set up steam and everything for her but the next day, my wife noticed a game in her cart that RAISED EYEBROWS

Spoiler: the game

it was hitler loves anime or something like that.

to say the least. She's 15 yrs old and not my kid, and I feel like shit because I feel like I just blindly enabled exposure to something like that. I know there's far worse things on the web, and if she wants to get at them, she will.

BUT. We told my bro in law about the offending title and he wants help setting up parental controls for Steam. Now, we know about Family View, but we didn't really want to cut her off from the steam store ENTIRELY. As of now, it seems all we can do is fully disable it or enable it with those controls. To be honest, I wish Steam would allow us to lock those store preference controls behind the family view pin lock. Then we'd be able to lock down on the most concerning things without her being able to alter them.

Either way, I'm reaching out to parent-era or anyone else who knows tips for this kinda thing in the pc gaming sphere. Thanks for any help and please, don't offer me parenting advice, I'm not the parent, I'm just the family IT guy in this scenario.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Looking up that game, it seems like it probably came up due to looking up other "meme" games.

Just from the screenshots, it seems like something that should be automatically blocked if the "Adult" setting is already enabled on the account.

 

[neon/drifter]

Looking up that game, it seems like it probably came up due to looking up other "meme" games.

Just from the screenshots, it seems like something that should be automatically blocked if the "Adult" setting is already enabled on the account.

Click to shrink...

that's exactly what I figured regarding the content. I just hate that the "adult" setting is in preferences and can easily be reversed by the user, regardless of family view settings.

 

[tokkun]

that's exactly what I figured regarding the content. I just hate that the "adult" setting is in preferences and can easily be reversed by the user, regardless of family view settings.

Click to shrink...

Let's be realistic here. If the kid is determined to circumvent whatever filter you set up, they will find a way.

You should view it more as a means of communicating boundaries than enforcing them.

 

[LewieP]

The solution for this kind of thing is communicating with the child, rather than abdicating responsibility to a technological solution.

Parental controls are good for very young kids that will just mash buttons without understanding what they're doing, not for older kids who can circumvent them if they want to (especially if they're more proficient with technology than the parent).

 

[Cheesetriangles]

15 is beyond the age where filters are gonna do shit. Steam should allow you to set it up though. Kind of a band aid though unless you are doing a network wide filter.

 

[spman2099]

15? I don't mean to pile on, but the solution here is to talk to them. There are almost no games she should be blocked from playing, though you can talk to her about what kind of thing is just flat-out in poor taste and why it makes you feel uncomfortable.

Filters aren't a great solution for any child over the age of 12.

 

[Rosebud]

15yo is too old for that imo. Just block explicit content (even I have it blocked because of creepy stuff). Communication is key.

I don't know this game but it's probably some meme thing that went viral on social media, you can't block everything.

 

[xpownz]

Talk to her and show her why this is an raised eyebrow situation.
Next time she sees something like that, maybe she will raise an eyebrow by herself and start to judge 'good from bad'

Communication is key

 

[Tobor]

It is completely naive to think you can limit a 15 year old through parental controls.

 

[Katmeister]

OP do you remember what it was like being 15? I learned about WW2 when I was 14 in school and already edgy kids were making Hitler jokes. I don't think you should feel guilty for "exposing" the kid to this stuff when it's likely she'll come across it in school first where you can't control anything.

I agree with the others this should be something the parents talk to her about. Find out how she came across, how does she feel about it, talk about how others feel about it, how it can interpreted and how it can be harmful. Basically treat teenagers like they're people and not dumb kids that accidentily heard someone say "fuck".

 

[neon/drifter]

👀 at all the people who skipped the part where I said it ain't my kid and I will disregard all parenting advice. My brother in law is absolutely having a dialogue with her and he's gonna raise her how he wants. I'm just setting up filters for the parent that requested them.

Can the mods go ahead and close this? I think I got maybe one productive bit of discussion. If it were my kid, it'd be different but she ain't so I'm not here for that.

 

[Rosebud]

👀 at all the people who skipped the part where I said it ain't my kid and I will disregard all parenting advice. My brother in law is absolutely having a dialogue with her and he's gonna raise her how he wants. I'm just setting up filters for the parent that requested them.

Click to shrink...

I don't think there's a filter that can stop a 15yo lol

They are meant so small kids won't accidentaly watch something like Squid Game, if a teenager already knows about it they can find on google. That's what I would say to them.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

The only thing that will help is removing the PC. You can get her on a parent's account but that's about it, but she can easily bypass that.

My son has been asking for a PC and I am not budging for this reason. He got a Series S and I locked it down.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Thread locked at OPs request