If you have children using a Nintendo Switch, you may be concerned that they might be talking to strangers in online connected games. Fortunately, Nintendo offers an easy way to disable communication with others in their smartphone parental control app. Here’s how to set it up.
First, download the Nintendo Parental Controls app
Before you can restrict communication with others online, you must register the Switch console with Nintendo’s parental controls app. Nintendo is making the app available as a free download for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Installation is simple and only takes a few moments to work out.
RELATED: Set up parental controls on Nintendo Switch
How to Restrict Communication with Others in Toggle Parental Controls
After activating parental controls on your Switch, open the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls smartphone app. If you have registered multiple Switch consoles, select the Switch you want to change from the top left corner of the screen. Then tap “Console Settings” at the bottom of the screen.
In Console Settings, tap Restriction Level.
In “Restriction level settings” you will see different preset profiles such as “Teen”, “Pre-teen” and “Child”. Selecting “Teen” enables communication with others in games on that switch. If you select “Pre-Teen” or “Child”, communication with others in online games is disabled by default.
But there is a better way to gain more granular control over these communication restrictions. Tap “Custom Settings” and then tap “Communicate with Others”.
In “Communicate with others”, toggle the switch next to “Restrict communicating with others” to turn it on.
Under the option “Restrict communication with others” you will see a list of games installed on that particular Switch console. The toggle switch next to each game allows you to change the communication restrictions for a particular game.
So if you want to allow communication only within a certain game, such as Minecraft, for example – you can turn off the switch next to Minecraft in the “Communicate with Others” list, and your kids can connect to online worlds and chat with strangers, just for Minecraft.
Some examples of limited communication on the switch
The “Restrict communication with others” setting does different things in different games. As a general rule, it prevents players from sending a message to another player, be it by voice, text, drawing, drawing, or otherwise. Here are a few examples.
- All games with voice chat: Voice chat is turned off.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Players cannot send letters to friends between islands and use the internet connected design kiosk.
- Fortnite: Players cannot voice chat with other players.
- Minecraft: Prevents online play with others, including friends.
- Splatoon 2: Players cannot read or share messages from players (the hand-drawn images that float above players’ heads).
These are just a few of the many hundreds of games affected by the “Restrict Communicating with Others” setting. To see the effects in each game, you have to experiment a bit. If it works as planned, you should see a message similar to the one in Minecraft when trying to access online communication features.
But at least with Nintendo Switch parental controls, there’s no reason your kids can’t still enjoy playing games while also getting some peace of mind. Have fun gaming!