Microsoft Family Safety: controls for your child's Windows PC and Xbox

If your child has a Windows laptop or an Xbox, Microsoft's free Family Safety tools let you set bedtimes for the screen, limit games, filter websites and approve anything they want to buy. It works well on those two. On phones it's a different story, so we'll start with the honest bit.

What it does, and what it no longer does

Microsoft has pulled back from phones. The location sharing, location alerts and driving reports that used to be the headline features of the Family Safety app have gone: Microsoft's own help pages flag them as “going away”, and families saw them disappear at the end of 2024. What's left is screen time, app and game limits, website filtering, spending controls and activity reports, and they work on:

• Windows PCs (Windows 10 and 11) and Xbox consoles, where it's properly built in;
• Android phones, partly, through the Family Safety app (Microsoft's phone screen-time limits only apply to Android, not iPhone).

For a child's phone we'd use the tools the phone was built with instead. They do more, and they don't depend on a Microsoft app staying installed. See our step-by-step guides for iPhone Screen Time and Google Family Link, or start with the parents' overview.

Step 1: set up a family group and your child's account

Everything hangs off a Microsoft “family group”. You're the organiser; your child is a member with their own Microsoft account. They need their own account, not yours: the controls follow the account, not the device.

1. On your computer, go to account.microsoft.com/family and sign in with your own Microsoft account (the one you use for Outlook, Xbox or Windows).
2. Choose Add a family member, pick the Member role, and either enter your child's email address or choose Create an account to make them a new one.
3. If your child is young, you'll be asked to give consent for their account. UK data law treats under-13s as needing a parent's say-so online, so expect this step. Follow the link in the email and approve it.
4. On a Windows PC you can do the same from Settings → Accounts → Family → Add someone.
5. Put the Microsoft Family Safety app on your own phone. That's where requests (“can I have 30 more minutes?”) arrive and where you'll say yes or no.

Then have your child sign in to their PC and Xbox with their account. Controls only reach devices connected to your family group.

Step 2: screen time on the PC

1. In the Family Safety app (or at account.microsoft.com/family), tap your child's name and choose Screen time.
2. Pick the device type, then a day, and set the hours they're allowed (say, 4pm–7pm) and a daily total.
3. Tick the other days to copy it across, or give weekends their own schedule.
4. If they use a PC and an Xbox, turn on Use one schedule for all devices so the time is shared rather than doubled.

Step 3: limit or block apps and games

Screen time is the overall allowance. App and game limits are for the one thing that eats it. They work on Windows, Xbox and Android devices in your family.

1. Choose your child, then Apps, features and games, and turn on App and game limits.
2. Pick the app or game and set how long they can spend on it each day, or block it outright.
3. Tick Block related websites too. Otherwise a blocked game can often be played in the browser instead.

Step 4: filter websites (the Edge catch)

Website filtering only works in Microsoft's own browser, Edge, with your child signed in. To stop them simply opening Chrome instead, Microsoft blocks other browsers when filtering is on. That's deliberate, but it catches parents out when homework suddenly “won't open”.

1. Choose your child, then Content filters.
2. Turn on Filter inappropriate websites and searches. This blocks adult sites and switches Bing searches to safe mode.
3. For a young child, go further with Only use allowed websites, then add the sites they need (school, CBBC, and so on). Tick Always allow educational websites if you'd rather not list every one.

Step 5: approve every purchase

1. Choose your child, then Manage spending.
2. Turn on Require approval for every purchase. Anything they try to buy in the Microsoft or Xbox store now comes to your phone as a request.
3. Don't save a card to their account. If you want them to have pocket money for games, add a fixed amount to their Microsoft balance instead.

Step 6: the Xbox Family Settings app

For the console, Microsoft has a separate free app, Xbox Family Settings (iPhone and Android). It covers the things that matter on a games machine:

• Screen time schedules, and a pause button that stops play immediately;
• Content settings, so games are limited by age rating;
• Ask to buy requests and their account balance;
• Friends and communication: your child has to “ask a parent” before adding a friend, and you decide who they can chat with;
• Online multiplayer on or off, with an exception you can make for Minecraft.

Set up the family group first (step 1), then sign in to the app with your own account and your child appears in it.

A sensible starting point for an under-13

• Their own Microsoft account, in your family group.
• One screen-time schedule across PC and Xbox, off at bedtime.
• Website filtering on; “allowed websites only” for younger children.
• Approval required for every purchase, no card on the account.
• Xbox: ask-a-parent for friends, chat limited to friends, multiplayer off until you're ready.
• Activity reporting on, and a look together once a week.

That last one matters more than any setting. Activity reports show which apps and games were used, for how long, and which sites and Bing searches came up. Sit down with it together rather than using it to catch them out. Children who know the rules and why they exist spend far less effort getting round them.

The honest caveats

• You're trading data for control. Activity reporting works by sending your child's app, web and search history to Microsoft so it can show it to you. That's the deal with every free parental-control tool from Apple, Google or Microsoft, and it's worth knowing before you switch everything on.
• Filtering is Edge-only. Other browsers get blocked rather than filtered, and filtering only covers Bing searches properly.
• It only covers their account. A spare laptop, a friend's console or a guest account on the family PC sits outside all of this. Lock guest accounts down and keep admin passwords to yourself.
• Features change. Microsoft has already removed location and driving features once. Check the settings still say what you think they say every few months.

None of this replaces talking to them. But set up once, it takes the nightly arguments about “five more minutes” off your plate and hands them to a timer.