Reviews for Nintendo Switch Parental Cont…

Better than nothing. Would give it a 5 if you could set your own time limits instead of use preset time limits. I like to let my son earn an hr of game time but the presets only go as low as 2 hrs. It would also be nice if kids had to get parental code input any time they download or buy anything (including free content) so we can decide if we want them playing it.

Sorely lacking in functionality. The user profiles are there, the different character profiles are there, I would expect to be able to set limits for each user individually. I would like to schedule more than just bedtime as well. How about each player having a pin to enter so time allotments don't get stolen by another player/sibling, etc.. It's bare bones of what a person could expect. Better than nothing, but sorely lacking in features. If Nintendo wants parents using they're system moe, then offer more functionality. As it is, I'm ready to lock the thing up = no more reason to buy games.

Great that Nintendo gives you the ability to remotely control the Switch. Pretty basic though. Age restriction, Time limit, and Monitoring. Would be great if you could limit individual games. You can sorta, by age restricting, but it'd be nicer if you could just lock out specific games at will rather than a broad age restriction.

Great but stopped working recently. It's showing error to connect to the console. Updates in the time restriction doesn't apply even tho we are connected on wifi. It doesn't detect the game is playing. I have to manually sync from console which this shouldn't be a kid's job. If this was working, there's no way to apply an exception for a special day (holiday with no school). I would have to update in the app then change it again for next week. I didn't want to temp disable for the whole day.

It's definitely helpful, but the settings are for the entire console and not customizable per person (which makes sense since you don't log in and stay logged in). I like that it will hide news articles based on age rating. I don't know how it handles purchases yet. I like that there is a pin for the adults to use to unlock things, and that you can lock the app on your phone.

Its a great app, but I wish the time limits were based on the individual kids "account" rather then the whole account. Because of this one kid has the ability to hog the device... would also be nice to have an easier way to suspend/pause game time. Currently you need to go into the day and change the time allotted. Its a pain, there has to be a better way...

Great, but needs to be individualized by account. The app enables you to control the WHOLE switch. It counts the time the console was active, not a given account. I want my daughters time on the console on her account to be tracked and limited. not mine. Unfortunately, there's no way to discriminate between us (unless I clearly missed it). Otherwise this is an awesome app.

Limited functionality. No way to set a password to the system or games. No way to set time limits for profiles. You can set a bedtime restriction, but not a "wake up" (i.e., no way to set only 1 hour of play and must be between 1 - 7pm). Yes, this app does make my job as a parent easier, but only slightly. Given the complexity of the Switch more robust parental controls would be helpful. My basic thermostat has more security and scheduling options and I didn't even upgrade to the Nest.

If I add 2 hours one day, it's 2 hours from then on unless I remember to change it back. (Google Family Link has different limits for each child, and I can give bonus time and it goes back to set limits after.) A child can use any other child's profile, accessing content inappropriate for their age. Adding a pin would fix this. It would also allow for individual time limits. If the wifi is off, I have no control. I can't add time or lock it. Also needs a "where's my device" feature.

I like the app's simplicity and how you can set time limits. I don't like the fact that if the pin is entered directly into the switch console you cannot shut it down from the app. So, when your children watch your husband put in the pin, they can sneakily bypass their time restrictions. Also, the app tells you how long the switch is unlocked, but not who is playing during that time.

This app is ok. I think it could use some upgrades. The main one being lock console immediately. If you lose the system or if it dinner time, bed time, you should be able to lock the gaming system. It could also use a Bluetooth connection options for when unit is not connected to a network you can connect through Bluetooth to make changes to parent settings. Finally, if it had a find my device feature it would be the greatest app ever! But the first issue is why I only gave it 3 stars.

Its great to be able to set downtime, but the device limit of 3 is retarded. I have 9 kids, all who have their own Switch Lite, so I literally have to have 3 separate accounts set up to be able to manage all of their Switches. It's frustrating to have to log out and back in to each account anytime I want to give them extra time. I also have to pay for 2 family plans of Nintendo Switch online. Nintendo is VERY not large family friendly it seems, but at least the limit for that is 8 people.

It has a nice simple interface but, as others have pointed out, there are 2 glaring omissions. First, the restrictions are set for the entire console. We really should be able to set restrictions per account. Second, you can set a bedtime to restrict nighttime gaming but it becomes available again at 6am. I can easily tell my child myself that they need to stop playing in the evening without this. But I don't want them playing so early in the morning before the rest of us are awake. Not helpful.

It's good but missing features. The time limit runs down even when not playing games, and even though you can set a bedtime you can't set a start time. We don't like our kids playing games first thing in the morning but with the current app there is no way to control that. Nintendo needs to study how Amazon does their parental controls for fire tablets and take a page out of that book.

I wish I could set controls for each profile individually. It's very frustrating that the timers are for the console as a whole - just because I don't want my kid staying up playing till all hours of the night doesn't mean I'm not going to. Also, being able to set certain times on the profiles so that they can't be played would be nice (like 8 pm to 8 am for example.) (Think Amazon fire tablet style parental controls. You can control everything down to the max volume level.)

A lazy attempt at controls. There is so much missing and Nintendo should be disappointed at their attempt. Things such as limited single session screen time. They have a bedtime setting but no morning setting. The device is for a user not a family so having pins for other users isn't an option. You cannot limit store access for a young one. Those are just a few at a minimum. They have a long way to go for being what's know as a kid friendly platform.

Really bare bones controls. You can set hourly limits on a console, and you can set an alarm for bedtime, and you can see a general idea of how much of each game was played each day, but that's it. It's unclear how well these settings work. For example, I set bedtime at 8pm, but when I look at the time played, it has red text saying the game was played past the set time. It doesn't say when the hours happened, so I can't know if she went over by five seconds or somehow kept playing for an hour.

This app works great for setting a time limit for my kid's switches, HOWEVER, I wish there was an option to add bonus time to their limit for the day. I don't want to have to always change limits. Bonus time works great for rewarding them for chores and other things. I also wish I was able to select a time for the switch to unlock in the morning, I don't like it being automatically unlocked at 6 a.m..

It works. It can set a time limit but ultimately it could be much more robust. Primarily I would like to set blocks of time that a user would be allowed to play and a bank of time available. ie. I would like to make 30 mins available in the morning and 30 mins available in the evening but have larger windows of where those 30 mins could be played with hard cut off times (like going to school or getting ready for bed) also why is this a separate app from the Nintendo Switch App? combine them.

I'm absolutely shocked at how bad this app is. I understand the people who say they use it to limit their own screen time, but for a parent? It's almost useless. Yes you can limit screen time, but not to zero, and only in the amount and increments they say - there's no way to give , say, 7 minutes. there's also no way to set a bedtime that isn't one of the ones Nintendo chooses to give you. and limiting games? there's no way to pick what games they can or cannot play, no allow or block lists.