Guide G.11 · Updated April 2026

Setting up Steam & Epic for a young gamer.

PC gaming has fewer built-in parental controls than consoles. Most of the work is done via Steam's Family View and keeping Discord configured sanely.

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Steam requires users to be 13+. If your child is younger, they shouldn't have their own Steam account — use yours with Family View enabled, and choose a handful of games you've approved.

  1. Steam: enable Family View

    Steam client → Steam → Settings → Family → Family View → Enable. Steam walks you through picking a PIN and choosing which parts of Steam your kid sees.

  2. Select allowed games

    During Family View setup, tick games your kid can play. Everything else is hidden. You can add more later with the PIN.

  3. Block the store, community, or chat

    Same setup wizard. For younger kids, block all three; they launch games and that's it. For teens, community + chat are usually fine.

  4. Turn off purchases without PIN

    Family View covers this automatically — any store action requires the PIN.

  5. Epic Games: set up Cabined Accounts

    If your child is under 13, their Epic account is automatically a "Cabined Account" — chat, purchasing, and custom content are off by default until you approve.

  6. Epic: restrict voice & text chat

    Parental Controls → Voice Chat → Filtered, Text Chat → Friends only. Covers Fortnite and Rocket League.

  7. Discord: tighten default settings

    If they use Discord, open: Settings → Privacy & Safety → Keep me safe, Allow DMs from server members → Off, Friend requests → Friends of friends.

  8. Turn off game streaming unless you want it

    Steam, Epic, and Discord all let kids stream gameplay. Off by default is fine; turn on deliberately.

  9. Check game ESRB ratings together

    esrb.org has the detailed descriptors. "E10+ with Online Interactions Not Rated by ESRB" means the game itself is fine but the chat/multiplayer is wild — decide accordingly.