The best play happens in a safe environment. PlayStation has a range of features to help support a safe online environment and keep your account details secure and personal details private.
Find safety tools and tips for players of all ages
Keep track of your child’s gaming at-a-glance
Read an easy-to-understand privacy explainer for young people
Learn how we encourage safe play for everyone
Whether you’re setting up for the first time, or making adjustments, here are some helpful guides.
Shape what your young player sees and interacts with based on what you determine is appropriate for their age.
Find out more about how to set play time, spending and age restrictions and social features access from your console, PC, smartphone or the PlayStation Family app.
Choose a privacy preset or customise individual settings to control who can see your profile, contact you, and interact with you.
Learn how we promote safe, age-appropriate experiences for players and families and give players and parents meaningful control over their communication & gaming experiences.
Add additional protection to your account with passkeys, two-step verification, sign-in alerts, checkout protections and wallet controls by updating your account management settings.
Learn about the personal information we collect from you, how we use and share it, and how you can tailor your privacy preferences.
QR code sign-in
If you use PlayStation App on your smartphone, signing in to your PS5 console for the first time is as quick and easy as scanning an on-screen QR code with your phone. The process becomes even simpler with future sign-ins: instead of scanning the QR code, you will automatically receive a push notification to your PS App whenever you need to sign in.
Activate a passkey
A passkey is a password replacement that provides faster, easier, and more secure sign-in to your account for PlayStation. It allows you to access your account without a password. Instead, you sign in through your mobile device or computer using the same convenient device screen unlocking method like a fingerprint, face scan or PIN. Learn how.
‘Quick Play’ guest accounts
Friends and family members can play on your PS4 or PS5 console without having to sign-in to an account for PlayStation. This means they won’t have any access to your profile, payment information, saved games or anything else that’s linked to you. Likewise, when you play as a guest on a friend’s console, your data won’t be stored on that device.
Two-step verification
Two-step verification adds an extra layer of security to your account for PlayStation, ensuring that only you can access your profile. When you sign in on any PlayStation console or your mobile device, tablet or computer, you can opt to receive a unique, one-time verification code to your registered phone number or a third-party verification app, so we’ll know it’s definitely you that’s signing in.
Multi-layer password protection
Keep your console and your account for PlayStation safe with unique passcodes that only you know.
Additionally, we’ll ask you to re-enter your password if you need to access and make changes to select settings, including your Privacy settings.
Suspicious log-in alerts
If we detect any unusual attempts to access your account, we can block that sign-in and alert you via text message or email.
Keeping your account information up to date – including adding a phone number – lets you take advantage of the full range of security features. You can do so from your account management settings.
PlayStation provides ways to access and delete personal information, with rights varying by location.
Learn more here.
There are several places where you can sign in using your account for PlayStation and adjust your privacy settings:
On PlayStation.com. Once you’ve signed in, go to Account Settings and choose Privacy Settings.
Via your PS4 or PS5 console’s Settings menu.
On the official PlayStation App. Tap your avatar then head to the ‘Privacy’ icon.
Learn how to manage who can communicate with you or see your activity on PlayStation.
You have several options to control how we use your personal information.
Learn more about how to update your privacy settings here.
We use your personal information to provide you with the games you play and to enable the features and functions of PlayStation, playstation.com, and our mobile apps.
In addition, we may use your information to understand, improve, and enhance our existing services, and to develop new ones. These enhancements may include improving user interfaces, game performance, or game design.
We may also use your personal information to protect you, other users, our rights and properties, or those of our partners. For example, we may use your information to enforce our terms of service or other applicable terms, to identify fraudulent activities and to prevent abuse, or for auditing, compliance, and legal purposes.
While much of the personal information we collect is necessary to deliver you our services, you can choose whether we collect more information. For example, on the PS5, you can choose whether we only collect the data that is necessary to deliver you our services (“Limited Data”) or whether we can collect more data for purposes such as improving your experience (“Full Data").
Learn more about how to update your privacy settings here. For more details about how we use your personal information, check the “Information Use” section of our Privacy Policy.
Personal information is the information that identifies you, such as your name, email address, and your PlayStation Online ID. It also includes the information that we link to you, such as the games you play, the products you have, or the actions you take while on our devices and network.
When you engage with us through, for example, the account creation process, using the console or PlayStation App, or playing a game, we collect personal information. During the account creation process, for instance, we collect identifiers such as your name and email address.
When you use our services or play games on console or on PlayStation App, we collect additional information that we link to you such as age, trophies earned, progress within a game, or which players you play against.
We may also receive information from third parties. For example, when you link your account with a third party service like Apple Music on PS5, we may have access to your Apple Music media library, ratings, or listening activity.
For more details on the personal information we collect, check the “Information that We Collect or Receive” section in our Privacy Policy.
PlayStation wallet
Adult accounts for PlayStation have an online wallet that can be used to store funds for purchases on PlayStation Store or from in-game storefronts. Parents can grant access to their child’s account to spend from this wallet and set monthly spending limits for purchases.
More about PlayStation wallets
Password at checkout
Secure your purchases with your console sign-in password so that only you can authorise payments made to PlayStation Store.
Friend Requests
You can decide how you appear in member search results and who can send you friend requests.
Close Friends
You can choose to reveal your real name to any of your friends and become ‘Close Friends’. Otherwise, you can continue to appear online as your chosen online ID. For our young gamers, child accounts are prohibited from sharing their real name or picture.
Online Status and Activities
Choose to show your online status to friends, or to appear offline or busy, when you sign in and play. You can also decide whether other people can see the games you play, music you listen to, and entertainment services you use.
Parties
You can create a party when you play online. A party is an online space for you to plan your next gaming session, invite friends to play or to chat with while you play games.
These can be private and restricted only to you and your friends, and if you started the party, you’ll have the power to mute or remove anyone from the session if they’re not welcome.
Messaging
PlayStation privacy settings let you decide who can send you direct or group messages, so you can stay in touch with friends without unwanted interruptions.
URL Filters
If a message contains a link to a website, we may scan the URL and remove it from the message if it leads to a site known to contain offensive or inappropriate material.
Spam Filters
We may screen PlayStation messages for spam to protect you while you play. If you ever receive a message that you think is spam, please report it to us so we can protect others.
Video clips and screenshots
If you share screenshots and videos to social media, who sees your content is controlled by your social media account settings for those services. On PS4, shared content can also be displayed in the What’s New feed for your PlayStation friends and followers to see – or you can adjust this setting so only you see clips and screenshots, if you prefer.
Gameplay broadcasts
When you live stream or post videos to YouTube or Twitch, who sees those broadcasts depends on the settings you have for those services. If you broadcast from the PS4 and the broadcast is set to public on YouTube or Twitch, it will appear in your Activities. You can still choose who can see your Activities by going to your privacy settings, clicking on Game / Media, and adjusting your Activities settings.
Voice sharing
If you’re playing online and using your microphone to chat with other players, you can restrict whether your voice can be included if another player is streaming their gameplay or recording a video clip.
Blocking other players
You shouldn’t have to play with anyone who acts inappropriately or makes you feel uncomfortable. You can mute players in-game, or block them to stop them from viewing your profile, contacting you or adding you to parties, and to limit contact with them next time you play.
Reporting toxic behaviour
Any behaviour that you believe violates the PlayStation Code of Conduct can be reported to our moderators. We take action on anything that violates our Terms of Service in a player’s profile, messages, broadcasts and other PlayStation features. You can also report any offensive voice chat on your PS5 console.
To report in-game behaviour– like cheating, offensive chat, or any other actions that spoil the game for others – you should use that game’s reporting tools. Each game’s reporting function is different but can usually be found by selecting the offending player’s ID from the online menus.
Reporting on PS5 | Reporting on PS4
What we do
Reports go to our team of moderators who review each case and decide if it breaches the code of conduct. If it has, the content will be removed and action will be taken, which could include suspending the player’s account from PlayStation.
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