PlayStation® Safety

Find safety tools and tips for players of all ages.

To play online you need an account for PlayStation™Network (PSN). Once you have an account, you can manage your account settings to tailor your PlayStation experience.

Parent or guardian?

Family managers can create separate accounts for their children and set unique preferences for each.

Under 18?

Ask your parent or guardian to help you create your account.

Age ratings on PlayStation content

Most PlayStation content is rated by an independent ratings body. Learn more about how age-rating information can help you decide what content you want to play and (for parents) what content is appropriate for your children.

PlayStation Safety ground rules

We want to provide a fun, inclusive experience for all players. So, everyone who has an account has to agree to play by the same rules. We set those out in the PlayStation Network Terms of Service.

When you play online, follow the Code of Conduct and tell us if others don't.

We created this shorter version to help our younger users but any player will find it helpful.

Content moderation on PSN

Our global team of human moderators review reports of misconduct on PlayStation Network.

To help us remove inappropriate content from the network, SIE encourages its players to submit any content that breaches our Code of Conduct. Trained moderators will evaluate each report, remove any offensive content, and take action on the offender's account if we deem that a reported player violated our Terms of Service User Agreement.

Together with player reported content, we also use automated content detection tools to identify certain harmful content shared to PlayStation Network. This can cover the detection of profane language and harmful links that breach our Code of Conduct or the use of hash-matching tools to flag potential matches of harmful images. These hash-matching tools assign a unique digital signature to content, called a “hash”, and then compare the hash against a database of known signatures. Potential matches are either censored or sent to our human moderation team for further review.

In addition to taking action on an offender’s account, moderators may escalate reports for further review, which may include notifying law enforcement (or another appropriate government agency or appropriate authority) if the breach involves a threat to life or safety of yourself or others, or any other activity that we believe to be unlawful.

Suspensions on PSN

Our global team of moderators review the reports you send. They review reports carefully to see whether a player has breached the Code of Conduct and then apply an appropriate action to the account. 

For minor offenses, we may issue a warning but for more serious offenses, we may suspend a player's account, restricting access to PlayStation Network and other online services until the suspension is over.

Crisis support

PlayStation is partnering with Shout in the UK to provide free, confidential, 24/7 text-based mental health support for our players, their friends, or anyone close to them. 

If you or someone you know is struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please know you are not alone. A Shout Volunteer is available to you and anyone in the United Kingdom. 

This service is available in English.

Click here to learn more about Shout.

Related PlayStation Safety articles

Some of the common questions you may have about staying safe on PlayStation are covered below. If you don’t see your issue covered here, please check our Support site.

Get your family set up with their own accounts on PlayStation Network.
Restrict play time for younger players on PlayStation.
Decide who can see your activity on PlayStation Network.