PS4 parental controls pointless?

[Apeks3]

I know a young man using his PS4 all night (till 5am some nights).

I have advised his mother that there are parental controls on it to stop him using it between certain hours. But it appears that all he would need to do to remove these parental controls is a factory reset.

Is this so? If it is then the parental controls are not worth setting up!

Has anyone else had this problem and what were your remedies?

[MiniMan64]

Able to block the WiFi connection to it?

Or physically remove the power cable?

[Apeks3]

The mother is a lone parent and the boy is verbally abusive.

I looked into restricting the Wi-fi access but she has a Virgin media router that displays the "another user is logged in " error when you try to access it. I can reset her router but I need access to the PS4 to find its MAC address which is not possible.

[anonymous-user]

MiniMan64 said:

Able to block the WiFi connection to it?

Or physically remove the power cable?

Is the correct answer.

Most modern routers have options of setting a timer for the wifi, and it can be device specific.

Provided the router has the option, it is quite easy to tell it to only allow a PS4 access to the internet from 5pm to 7pm for example.

Edit: Just saw your reply above. I'm not sure what to suggest if she can't restrict the wifi.

Can she not just turn the wifi off in its entirety when it's time for him to stop playing? Or can she not just take a the PS4 controller off him when it's time to stop?

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 25th January 20:39

[MiniMan64]

The thing is if he’s abusive to the point of her being afraid or unable to remove it or parts of it then I guess there are bigger issues to deal with

[Apeks3]

Thanks for the replies.

It was more me wanting to know if I was right and a factory reset will disable the parental controls because it is the first thing he will do.

I don't know much about consoles. I'm a PC gamer!

[Sophisticated Sarah]

Surely the simple solution is to tell him to stop using it or she’ll cut the power chord?

[Apeks3]

It would be a simple answer for me but the mom can't do this. He screams, swears and shouts at her.

If I could set up the parental controls he won't have a go at me (I'm bigger than him) and his mom could truthfully say that she doesn't know how to turn them off!

[The_Jackal]

Wouldnt you need a pin code to factory reset if controls were in place?

[DanL]

Apeks3 said:

Thanks for the replies.

It was more me wanting to know if I was right and a factory reset will disable the parental controls because it is the first thing he will do.

I don't know much about consoles. I'm a PC gamer!

I believe a reset will delete his saved games, user profile, etc...

[bigandclever]

If she sets up proper security on the router it won’t matter if he factory resets the ps4 .. he won’t know the router password to get to the outside world.

[DanL]

Also, I suspect if she sets parental controls with the child’s profile set as a child it won’t allow the child to reset... There appear to be other controls you can add, such as system restrictions.

Have a read here: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/account/...

[LeadFarmer]

Of course the real answer is for her to buy a PS4 for herself and game with him till 5am. She’ll soon be hooked.

[Puggit]

DanL said:

I believe a reset will delete his saved games, user profile, etc...

Not on an Xbox - it's all in the cloud. Presumably a PS is the same.

[bigandclever]

Puggit said:

DanL said:

I believe a reset will delete his saved games, user profile, etc...

Not on an Xbox - it's all in the cloud. Presumably a PS is the same.

If you have a PS Plus account and upload it all. Which, again presumably, is similar to having an Xbox Live account.

[HayesDC2]

A reset would delete all of the games, then have to download / install them again even if disc based which would take an age. Would turning the wifi off completely not be easier?

[HRL]

She should just unplug the router and hide the PSU for it when she goes to bed.

[DanL]

Puggit said:

DanL said:

I believe a reset will delete his saved games, user profile, etc...

Not on an Xbox - it's all in the cloud. Presumably a PS is the same.

Indeed - my point was that it’s a faff. A full factory reset would delete the games as well, meaning they’d need reinstalling and updating.

I’d be a bit surprised if a child account could do a system reset though. You’d have thought they’d lock that out, and restrict it to the adult accounts.

[Steven_RW]

Risk we are focussing on internet connection too much here?

I play dark souls and skyrim and all manner of 1 player games on my ps4 that will work fine with no internet connection.

The internet connection would just stop multiplayer online cod, accessing digital only games or the ability to download updates to games.

I think the issue needs to be addressed more head on somehow. As hard as that will be and with the insane teen gamer rage she will experience as they get over it.

RW

[anonymous-user]

Steven_RW said:

Risk we are focussing on internet connection too much here?

I play dark souls and skyrim and all manner of 1 player games on my ps4 that will work fine with no internet connection.

The internet connection would just stop multiplayer online cod, accessing digital only games or the ability to download updates to games.

I think the issue needs to be addressed more head on somehow. As hard as that will be and with the insane teen gamer rage she will experience as they get over it.

RW

You are probably right.

The issue likely needs tackled head on, and a total withdrawal of gaming until there is an attitude change. The kid will probably go through stages of utter rage, grief, despair, crying, anger, and may even take a physical swing at his own mother before he has any form of realisation that he's not getting his own way.

It will be awful but probably needs to happen.