Setting up the account and checking it works

Why the order matters

The natural order is to install, play, and deal with the settings later. Later tends not to arrive, because once a game is running there is no moment that obviously belongs to admin.

So this step does the dull parts first: the device controls, the account, the payment method, and only then the game. Twenty minutes spent this way removes most of the situations that cause trouble in month two — an account on a child's email that an adult cannot recover, a card saved for one-tap purchases nobody meant to allow, a password shared with three other sites.

Everything here is described in general terms, because every game's screens are laid out differently and the labels change. What does not change is the list of things to settle, which is what follows.

Installing, in general terms

On a phone or tablet, install from the official store, found by searching inside the store app itself rather than through a web search. On a computer, go to the vendor's own website by typing its address into the address bar, and download the client from there.

Two habits make this safe without any extra software. Type addresses rather than following links from messages, and ignore download buttons on sites that are not the vendor's. Modified installers travel through search results, video descriptions and forum posts, and they do not announce themselves.

Expect the first download to be large and slow. Start it when nobody needs the connection, and on fixed broadband rather than mobile data if an allowance is a concern, which is the point your Step 2 notes already settled.

A computer will usually ask whether to allow the program to make changes, and the launcher may ask to start automatically with the computer. Allowing the first is part of installing. Declining the second is reasonable and can be changed later; a game that only runs when someone opens it is easier to keep track of.

The email address and the password

Use an adult's email address, and use the one that adult actually reads. Every recovery, every receipt and every security notice goes there, and an account attached to an abandoned address is an account nobody can recover.

If the household would rather keep game mail separate, a second free mailbox is fine, as long as an adult checks it and its own password is good. What does not work is a child's school address or an address shared with friends.

The password should be used nowhere else. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes current, plain-language guidance on passphrases and on password managers, and it is a better source for the specifics than anything this course could summarise. The general principle is long and unique rather than short and clever, and written down somewhere an adult can find rather than memorised and then reset every month.

If the player is a child, the password is held by the adult. That is not a trust measure; it is what makes the adult able to help when something goes wrong, and it reflects the parental consent wording you probably found in Step 3.

Turning on the second factor

Multi-factor authentication, sometimes shown as two-factor or 2FA, asks for a second piece of evidence when someone logs in from a new device — usually a code from an app on a phone, or a code sent by email or text.

If the game offers it, turn it on while you are in the account settings, not later. It is the single setting that does most to keep an account from being taken over by someone who found the password elsewhere, and in a game with purchases attached, an account is worth taking.

Put the second factor on the adult's phone rather than the child's device, and if the game offers backup or recovery codes, save them with the password. Where a game offers nothing of the kind, note that as a fact about the game rather than a problem you can fix.

Choosing how it gets paid for

There are three usual ways to pay for a game or anything inside it, and the choice determines how much effort any future purchase takes.

Paying through the app store on a phone or tablet is the simplest to control, because both Apple's and Google's stores let an adult require approval or a password for every purchase, and both let you see the history in one place. On a shared tablet this is usually the right answer.

Paying the vendor directly by card is the most common arrangement on a computer. Check whether the card is stored for future use, and whether that can be turned off, before completing the first purchase.

Prepaid cards or gift cards for the relevant store are the strictest form of limit, because they cannot overspend. They suit a household that would rather cap the total than rely on anyone remembering a figure.

Whichever applies, the account that pays belongs to an adult. A card saved on an account a child can use is a one-tap purchase waiting to be made by accident, and the resulting conversation is about money rather than about the game.

Parental controls on the device you chose

Every current operating system has controls built in at no extra cost, and they are more reliable than any promise a game makes about itself. The names differ; the features are much the same.

On iPhone and iPad they sit in Settings under Screen Time, where you can require approval for purchases and installs and set limits on time. On Android and Chromebooks the equivalent is the Family Link arrangement set up from a parent's account. On Windows the controls live in the Microsoft family settings, and on a Mac in Screen Time under System Settings.

Three settings earn their keep: require approval for purchases, require approval for new installs, and set a daily or weekly time limit if time is likely to be the argument rather than money. Set them before the game is first opened, so they are not experienced as a punishment for something.

Inside the game itself, look for the chat or social settings and read what they offer. Some games allow messages only between players who have agreed to be friends, some restrict wording, and some offer nothing. The eSafety Commissioner publishes advice for parents and carers on these settings and on what to do if a child is contacted inappropriately, including how to report it.

The test: eight things to confirm

Setting something is not the same as it working. Spend ten minutes confirming, in this order.

1. Log out of the game completely, then log in again with the written-down password to confirm both the password and the login work.
2. If you turned on a second factor, log in once from a different device to confirm the code arrives where you expect it.
3. Open the account area and find the cancellation control you read about in Step 3, confirming it exists where the terms said it does.
4. Open the payment settings and confirm whether a card is stored, and that purchases need approval or a password.
5. Attempt a purchase of the smallest item and stop at the confirmation screen, to see whether approval is actually requested; cancel rather than completing it.
6. Check the chat or social settings and confirm they are where you left them.
7. Play for five minutes on the chosen device to confirm the game runs well enough, and in the room it will usually be played in.
8. Look at the email inbox and confirm the receipts and security notices are arriving at the adult's address.

If any of the eight fails, that failure is the task for the evening rather than the game. Items four and five are the ones most often assumed and least often true.

What to write down and where to keep it

Four facts are worth keeping somewhere an adult will find them in six months: the email address the account is on, where the password is stored, the exact cancellation method, and the date the first charge is expected if there is one.

A password manager, a paper note in a drawer, or a page in the household folder all work. What does not work is a text message to yourself, which will be gone long before the question is asked.

Add one line about the second factor: which device the code arrives on. The common reason an account cannot be recovered is that the second factor is on a phone that has since been replaced.

Before you move on

• The account is on an adult's email, with a unique password and, where offered, a second factor.
• Purchases require approval, and you have seen that with your own eyes rather than assumed it.
• The cancellation control has been found in the account area, not just in the terms.
• Four lines are written down somewhere an adult will find them later.

Step 5 is the short one. It turns all of this into a two-minute habit so that the next twelve months need no further reading.