How parental controls impact child accounts

Updated 2 weeks ago1 min read

Overview

Learn about what online features a child account can access and what games they can play.

Table of Contents

How does online play work with a child account?

A child account refers to an EA Account belonging to someone under their country’s age requirement.
Whether or not your child can play online depends on the platform they’re using and the parental controls you set on a platform level.  For example, if you turn off communication with other players in your Xbox’s parental controls, that will also turn off communications with other players in the EA game. You can adjust platform parental controls so your child can only play single-player, offline modes. Learn more about how EA Account parental controls work in our video.
Many of our games will let you turn off a specific feature based on the parental controls you set. For example, if you turn off multiplayer through the parental controls, your child won’t be able to access that feature in-game. Other games might switch off all online features completely.If your child can’t access the online features of an EA game even though the platform-level parental settings allow them to play online, it might be because the game content is Mature (M). Double-check the age rating on the EA app, or on the cover of the game box.To see what age is required to play online, check:

Many countries have data protection laws that require us to make sure children experience our games in a way that’s appropriate for their age. In some of our games, we’ll ask players their age and then turn off features that might not be appropriate for them. For example, if your child is below the minimum age of digital consent in your country, they won’t be able to connect to social networks and access social features.

Parental controls by platform

Child accounts can’t:
  • access online modes on PC or Mac in certain games
  • make purchases
    • children can’t be EA Play members or use EA Gift cards
  • log in to our websites 
    • child accounts can still use EA Help to create a case if they have an email address (a parent has the option to use the email address they used to validate a child account)
  • use companion web apps for games, or use mobile companion apps that need players to log in with an EA Account
  • connect their games to social media or link their accounts to Steam.
Child accounts can: 
  • redeem game codes bought by adult players.
Still having issues?
Get in touch with our customer support team for more help.