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Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite are where most kids play online in 2026, and each one hides its parental controls in a different place. Roblox keeps them in its own settings, Minecraft relies on your Microsoft family group, and Fortnite uses your child’s Epic account. On top of that, the phone or tablet has its own controls through Google Family Link or Apple’s Screen Time.
This guide sets up all of it in one sitting: who your child can chat with, how much they can spend, how long they can play, and what kind of content they see. Menu names are the ones I found in October 2026. These companies rename things often, so if a label on your screen is slightly different, look for the closest match in the same section.
Plan about an hour the first time, with your child’s device and your own phone next to you. Doing it together also means you can explain the rules instead of just switching things off.
Before you start: get the birthday right
Every one of these systems decides what your child can do based on the birthdate on the account. If your child typed a fake age to get past a sign-up screen, most protections simply never turn on. Check the birthdate on the Roblox, Microsoft and Epic accounts before anything else.
You will also need an adult account of your own on each service: a Roblox account, a Microsoft account and an Epic account. Roblox and some others ask you to verify that you are an adult with an ID or a credit card before you can link to a child. That is normal and comes from the company, not from a third party.
Roblox parental controls
Roblox rebuilt its controls in 2026. Since June, children are placed on Roblox Kids accounts (ages 5 to 8) or Roblox Select accounts (ages 9 to 15), based on an age check or a verified parent. Kids accounts only see games rated Minimal or Mild and have communication off by default; Select accounts see games up to Moderate. Everyone has to complete an age check to use chat at all.
Link your account to your child’s
On your child’s account, go to Settings > Parental Controls and tap Add parent, then enter your email. Follow the email, sign in or create your account, verify your age, and tap Agree. You can also start it from your own account under Settings > Parental Controls > Add parent. Once linked, you manage everything from your own account, and your child cannot undo it.
Content and games
In your parent view, open Content restrictions. The maturity slider sets the highest rating your child can play. Below it, Blocked games lets you block a specific game by name (it may still appear in search, but it will not open). Sensitive issues is a separate switch, off by default for under-13s. If your child asks to play a game outside their rating, the request shows up for you to approve or deny.
Chat and friends
Under Communication you can turn Experience Chat (chat inside games) and Direct Chat (one-on-one messages) on or off. Chat and party with friends can be limited to trusted friends or no one, and voice chat, where available, to trusted friends or no one. For children under 13, trusted friend requests need your approval within 24 hours. Under Connections you can see your child’s friend list and block or report anyone on it.
A sensible starting point for a child under 10: Experience Chat off, Direct Chat off, trusted friends only for everything else, and private servers limited to Connections under Visibility & private servers.
Spending
Under Spending restrictions, set a monthly spending limit. It resets at the end of the month and unused budget does not carry over. Turn on notifications for all transactions at first; once you are comfortable, switch to high-spend alerts. Younger users also need your approval to send or receive Robux transfers, which are capped at 500 Robux a day and 1,000 a month.
Screen time
Roblox lets you set a daily time limit for Kids accounts and for Select users aged 9 to 12. When the limit is reached, Roblox stops play for the day. Most of these controls can be managed through age 12; blocking specific games and managing Direct Chat continue through age 15. Roblox’s parent page has the official step-by-step for each setting.
Minecraft parental controls
Minecraft does not have one parental control menu. On phones, tablets, consoles and Windows (the Bedrock edition), everything runs through your child’s Microsoft account and your Microsoft family group. The Java edition on computers is more limited, so I cover it separately below.
Set up the Microsoft family group
Go to family.microsoft.com, sign in with your own Microsoft account and add your child with their real birthdate. If your child already has a Microsoft account for Minecraft, invite that account to the family instead of creating a new one. Your child’s account becomes a child account in the group, and the controls below apply to it everywhere they sign in.
The easiest way to manage it from your phone is the Xbox Family Settings app, which handles friend requests, multiplayer, chat and screen time, even if you do not own an Xbox. A July 2026 update added app and game time limits, blocking specific games, and custom schedules for weekends.
Multiplayer and chat
Two settings matter most. “You can join multiplayer games” decides whether your child can play online at all. If you turn it off, your child cannot join servers, shared worlds or Mojang’s paid private servers, and even playing with a sibling over home WiFi may stop working. That is the main complaint parents have: it is all or nothing. The second setting, “Others can communicate with voice, text, or invites”, lets your child play with others but hides chat and blocks game invites.
My approach for younger kids: allow multiplayer, block communication, and approve each friend request yourself. Child accounts start with communication blocked, so you only need to turn things on deliberately. The profanity filter stays on for child accounts.
Purchases
In the family group, turn on Ask to buy (or the purchase approval setting with the closest name) so that Minecoins and Marketplace purchases need your approval. You can also add money to your child’s account instead of linking a card, which sets a hard ceiling.
Minecraft Java on a computer
Java Edition now uses a Microsoft account to sign in, but it does not respect most family settings the way Bedrock does. Public servers have their own chat rules, and some are fine while others are not. For Java, the strongest controls are a separate computer user account for your child with the operating system’s own parental controls, and a short list of servers you have checked yourself.
Fortnite parental controls
Fortnite’s controls live in your child’s Epic Games account and protect it on every device they sign in with. Children under 13 get a Cabined account by default, which turns off voice chat, free text chat and real-money purchases until a parent gives consent through the email Epic sends.
Open the controls and set a PIN
In Fortnite, open the main menu and select Parental Controls. You can also sign in to your child’s Epic account on the Epic website and open Parental Controls there. The first step is a six-digit PIN. Keep it to yourself, because without it your child cannot change any setting you pick.
Chat, friends and parties
For voice chat, the choices are everybody, friends and teammates, friends only, or nobody. Text chat has similar options. Turn on the mature language filter, and limit who can send friend requests or invite your child to a party. For children under 13, Epic already caps some of these options by age.
Spending
You can require the PIN before any purchase with real money. Under-13 accounts that have parental consent still have a default daily spending cap, and buying above it needs your PIN. One gap to know about: on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, money spent in the console store is controlled by the console’s own parental controls, not by Epic. Set limits there too.
Time limits and reports
Since October 2024, Epic’s Parental Controls include Time Limit Controls for Fortnite. You can set a daily cap, the hours of the day when play is allowed, and whether your child can ask for more time. Children see a warning when 30 minutes remain. The limit follows the account, so switching from console to phone does not reset it. You can also opt in to Time Reports, which show up to four weeks of daily playtime in the Epic account portal.
Phone and tablet controls
Game settings protect the account. Device settings protect everything else: app downloads, purchases through the app store and total screen time. Set up both.
Android: Google Family Link
Add Google Family Link to your own phone, then follow its setup to link your child’s Google account. Two settings matter most for games. For purchases, select your child, tap Controls and then Google Play, open Purchases & download approvals and choose “All content” or “In-app purchases only”. For time, go to Screen time > Time limits, turn on Daily limit and set the hours per day. Google’s help page on purchase approvals shows the same steps.
Note that approvals only cover purchases made through Google Play’s billing. Some games on Android now offer their own payment option, and those payments skip Google’s approval screen. Use the in-game controls above as the second lock.
iPhone and iPad: Screen Time and Family Sharing
Your child needs to be in your Family Sharing group. On iOS 27, go to Settings > Family, tap your child’s name, then Apps & Websites > Restrictions > Ask to Buy, and turn on Require Purchase Approval. Every purchase or download then sends a request to your phone. In the same child menu, Content & Privacy Restrictions sets age ratings for apps, Allowed Contacts limits who can reach your child, and Screen Time Schedule and Time Allowances set when and how long they can use apps.
On older iOS versions, the same options are under Settings > Screen Time, inside Content & Privacy Restrictions. Apple’s parental controls guide lists the current steps.
सामान्य प्रश्न
Can my child get around these controls?
Some kids will try. The usual tricks are creating a second account with an adult birthdate, playing on a friend’s device, or guessing the PIN. Device-level controls (Family Link or Screen Time) make the first one harder, because new apps and accounts need your approval. Keep PINs and passwords private and check the account list on your child’s device now and then.
Do I need a paid parental control app?
For these three games, no. The built-in controls cover chat, spending and time. A paid app helps if you want web filtering and location in one dashboard, but it does not see inside game chats any better than the built-in tools.
What about scams inside the games?
Most scams target the in-game currency: fake generators, trade tricks and phishing links. Our guide to legit ways to get Robux and the scams to avoid explains them in a way you can share with your kid, and turning on two-factor authentication on each account stops most account takeovers.
A simple setup for this weekend
If you only have twenty minutes, do these five things. Fix the birthdate on each account. Link your Roblox account and set a monthly spending limit. Set a Fortnite PIN and require it for purchases. Turn on purchase approvals in Family Link or Ask to Buy on the iPhone. Then sit with your child and choose the chat settings together, so they know what is allowed and why.
Revisit the settings every birthday, because each platform opens up a little more as your child gets older. And if you are still picking which games to allow, our list of the best Roblox games to play in 2026 includes the age I think each one fits.
