Welcome PlayStation
to your family

PlayStation 4 is the world’s bestselling console and delivers an enormous catalogue of the biggest and best video games, movies and television streaming services direct to your living room. 

 
 
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Protecting your family

PlayStation strives to provide a safe, enjoyable environment for all our players and ensure that parents are well informed about the type of games their children are playing and the features they have access to.

With that in mind, on this page you will find information on: 

  • Games and features available on PlayStation 4
  • Parental Controls and how to set them up
  • Suitable games and how to find them
  • Online features and how they work
  • Entertainment extras the whole family can enjoy
  • Where to start when buying a PlayStation 4
 
 

Controlling access and restricting features

While gaming is the primary focus of our home consoles, we provide a lot of additional features as well, such as catch-up television and movie streaming services and music streaming via Spotify. 

It’s possible to restrict these features using account settings and parental controls, which can easily be accessed through the intuitive menu system.

There are two major ways to control what a user can access:

  • Feature Restriction will allow you to set controls for the whole console, preventing the use of Blu-Ray and DVD playback, Web Browser, Messages or even hardware peripherals like the PlayStation VR headset. It can also be used to prevent further account creation on the console.
  • Manage your children’s playtime with a Sub-Account – a special account designed for younger users that’s linked directly to your own. As the ‘master’ account holder, you’ll be able restrict access to a range of user features such as Messages and live gaming broadcasts, prevent or limit spending on PlayStation Store and block age-rated content.

Full instructions on how to use parental controls can be found on our help pages:

Using Sub-Accounts
Setting Parental Controls

Take control

Family Accounts

Create and control individual family accounts on your PS4 that let you stay in control of what each of your children can play, see, spend or have access to.

Using your PS4, PC or smartphone, control individual permissions for each member of your family, restricting content as you feel appropriate, and monitor which content is being accessed by who and for how long.

Learn how to set up a Family Account
 
 

Finding suitable games

Thankfully, the explosion of creative, co-operative games like Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet and the LEGO series mean there’s never been a better time for younger users to get into gaming and PlayStation 4 has a huge range of family-friendly games that really encourage this imaginative, interactive playstyle.

Fuel their imaginations with games that encourage creativity:

Get the family together with simple, multiplayer fun:

PlayLink for PS4

Bring friends and family into play.

Discover a new way to play PS4 games together - the PlayLink range lets you enjoy a variety of exciting and entertaining multiplayer titles, using your smartphone or tablet as a controller.

Find Out More
 
 

Age ratings

All games released on our consoles are submitted to your local classification board who review the entire game and provide content guidance to give you a clear idea of how suitable a game will be for your children.

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    Suitable for ages 3 and over. Over 60 titles available on PS4.

     

  • Suitable for ages 7 and over. Over 100 titles available on PS4.

     

  • Suitable for ages 12 and over. Over 180 titles available on PS4.

     
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Online multiplayer and PlayStation Plus

PlayStation Plus is an online subscription service that gives users access to our enormous online multiplayer community, a monthly selection of free games, cloud storage for backing up saved progress and exclusive promotional discounts.

A single subscription will allow access to this for all players on a single console. So, if you’d like more than one user on the console to have access to these features, you won’t need to purchase multiple subscriptions. If however, you would like to restrict access for specific users this can be done as using sub account controls.

Some online multiplayer games may have their own multiplayer service via a separate subscription. In these cases a PlayStation Plus subscription might not be necessary.

Access to all these features can be restricted using parental and sub-account controls.

 
 

Family-focused entertainment

As we mentioned earlier, PlayStation 4 is much more than a dedicated gaming machine.

  • Stream thousands of movies via PlayStation Video, including all the latest blockbusters and TV series.
  • Access Netflix, MUBI and many other great third-party streaming services.
  • Catch up on local TV with on-demand services from major broadcasters like the BBC.
 
 

Help and support

Find out everything you need to know to get started with PlayStation 4 - from setting up your console to creating an account and more.

Get Help