Steam Deck parental controls: the parent’s guide

Set up Steam Families from your own Steam account, add your child’s account as a child, and turn on parental controls for games, the Store, chat and playtime. Then, on the Deck itself, require the lock-screen PIN for switching to Desktop Mode — Desktop Mode is a full computer, and Steam Families has no setting for it.

Steam Deck controls come in two layers

Parental controls on a Steam Deck live in two separate places, and most parents only find one of them.

• Steam Families, on the account. Valve’s family system replaced both Steam Family Sharing and the older Steam Family View. Adults in a Steam Family set parental controls for child members: which games a child can play, access to the Steam Store, Community and Friends Chat, hourly and daily playtime limits, and playtime reports. Because the controls belong to the child’s Steam account, the same rules follow your child onto the Deck. Our Steam guide covers creating the family, privacy settings and scams in detail; this page covers what is different on the handheld.
• The lock screen, on the device. Valve added a lock screen and PIN to the Steam Deck in 2022. The PIN can be set to appear on wake, at boot, at login and when switching to Desktop Mode. The lock screen is the Valve setting that guards the way into Desktop Mode.

Keep the two PINs straight. Valve removed the old Family View PIN when Family View settings moved into Steam Families, so any guide telling you to set a Family View PIN is out of date. The Deck’s lock-screen PIN is a different, device-level setting, and it still exists.

Steam Deck setup checklist

1. Use your child’s own Steam account on the Deck. A Steam Deck signs in to a Steam account during first setup. Sign in with the account you are adding to your family as a child, not your own.
2. Create the Steam Family from your account. On the Steam Store, open Account Details, then Family Management, and choose Create a Family. Invite your child and choose child as their role. A Steam Family holds up to six people.
3. Turn on parental controls. In Account Settings › Family Management › Manage, expand your child’s entry and toggle Enable Parental controls. Game access, Steam feature access and playtime limits appear in the panel that opens.
4. Choose the games. Joining a family shares every member’s library automatically, including your own games. Parental controls are how you limit which of those games a child can open, so allow only the ones you are happy with.
5. Set playtime limits. Valve’s limits are hourly and daily. When your child asks for more time, you approve or deny the request, and an approval can be temporary or permanent.
6. Restrict the Store, Community and Friends Chat to suit your child’s age. Requests for feature access come to you the same way as requests for more time.
7. Lock Desktop Mode with a PIN. On the Deck, turn on the lock screen and choose to require the PIN when switching to Desktop Mode, not only on wake or boot. Keep the PIN to yourself.
8. Sign in to Steam on your phone. Valve says a Steam Family can be managed from the Steam client, a mobile device or a web browser, so you can check playtime reports and answer requests away from home.

Children cannot leave a Steam Family on their own; only an adult in the family or Steam Support can remove a child. If your child ever loses their password, an adult can recover a child account once the child has been in the family for at least 30 days.

Desktop Mode is the main way around the controls

Desktop Mode is the part of the Deck most parents never see. Valve’s own Steam Deck FAQ is plain about what it is: in Desktop Mode, “Steam Deck functions like a normal PC - you can browse the internet, download and install applications, and run programs outside of Steam.” Getting there takes three steps: the Steam button, then Power, then Switch to Desktop.

Steam Families is built around games, the Steam Store, Community and Friends Chat. Valve’s Steam Families documentation lists no control for Desktop Mode, for web browsers installed there, or for software from outside Steam. Valve also confirms that SteamOS users can “go to desktop mode and install other game launchers and software.” A child with free access to Desktop Mode can therefore install a browser and use it with no Steam Families restriction at all, and can add game launchers whose games sit outside the Steam library you set controls on.

Three defences, in order of importance:

• The Desktop Mode PIN. Require the lock-screen PIN when switching to Desktop Mode. A 2022 post in Valve’s Steam Deck bug-report forum described the start-up lock screen being bypassed by holding the power button and choosing Switch to Desktop when the PIN was set only for power-on and wake — one more reason to switch on the Desktop Mode option as well.
• Filtering on your home network. A filter set on your router or DNS service applies to every browser on the Deck while it is on your Wi-Fi, in either mode. See router and DNS filtering.
• A look at the desktop now and then. Since you hold the PIN, switch to Desktop Mode yourself occasionally and check what has been installed.

Purchase requests on a Steam Deck

Steam Families adds a payment option in which a child account asks an adult in the family to pay for the shopping cart. You approve and pay from your phone or by email, and approved games go straight into your child’s account. Asking for a game becomes a request you see, rather than a borrowed credit card.

Valve describes purchase requests as a payment option. Valve’s pages do not say a request stops a child paying another way, such as with a card or Steam Wallet funds already on their own account. If you want a firm stop, restrict Steam Store access in parental controls and let your child request access when they need it.

One more rule worth knowing before you share your library: Valve says that if a family member is banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you, as the owner, are banned in that game too. Valve recommends inviting only trusted household members.

What Steam Families cannot do on a Steam Deck

• Reach Desktop Mode. No Steam Families setting covers Desktop Mode, its browsers or software installed there. Only the lock-screen PIN guards the way in.
• Filter websites. Steam Families restricts Steam’s own features. Web filtering has to come from your router, a DNS service or a separate tool.
• Cover a second account. Parental controls apply to child members of your Steam Family. A different Steam account signed in on the Deck is outside them unless you also add it to your family as a child.
• Share every game. Developers can opt games out of Family Sharing, and titles that need a separate third-party account or subscription cannot be shared.

ROG Ally, Legion Go and other Windows handhelds

Not every gaming handheld runs SteamOS. The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally opens into the Xbox full screen experience with Windows 11 underneath; swiping up to the Task Switcher and tapping Windows Desktop opens the full Windows desktop. Lenovo’s Legion Go S comes in two versions: a Windows 11 model and a model “Powered by SteamOS,” which Valve calls the first handheld officially licensed to ship with SteamOS. Check which one your family owns.

A Windows handheld is a Windows PC, and its parental controls are Microsoft Family Safety. Microsoft says screen time limits and app and game limits apply to Windows devices connected to your family group, and that time limits do not work on websites. Set the handheld up exactly as you would a family laptop by following our Windows guide — including the rule that your child’s account must be a standard user, not an administrator. If your child also plays through Steam on the handheld, add their Steam account to your Steam Family as well, because Steam’s controls sit on the Steam account, not on Windows.

Valve says the SteamOS model of the Legion Go S runs the same operating system as the Steam Deck, so the Steam Families and Desktop Mode advice above applies to it too.

Steam Deck settings by age

• Under 10: a short list of allowed games, Store, Community and Friends Chat restricted, a daily playtime limit, and the Desktop Mode PIN on.
• Ages 10 to 12: open Friends Chat if your child plays with friends they know offline, and use purchase requests for new games. Keep the Desktop Mode PIN. The Discord guide matters once chat moves off Steam.
• Ages 13 to 17: playtime limits work best as an agreed budget, with requests for extra time. The Desktop Mode PIN still matters, because a browser installed there is unfiltered by anything Steam provides. The Steam guide covers the trade and phishing scams aimed at teenage accounts.

For the wider picture, see the ages 7–12 and ages 13–17 quick starts.