Here in Melbourne it's school holidays. You know what that means - trying to find fun activities, trying to keep the kids from trashing the house and yes - it means if the weather isn't great the kids are likely to do some gaming. I hadn't given it much thought until I saw Steam’s current sale on their base model Steam Deck ($519.20 AUD at the time of writing - honestly it's a great deal), and it got me thinking...
As a parent, navigating the world of video games with your kids can feel like a maze. Between the big names like Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation, just choosing a platform is a major decision, especially when your top priority is safety. It’s a challenge to find a digital playground that is both fun and secure.
After weighing all the options a few years back, we chose the PC ecosystem, with Steam as its hub. This was my children's introduction to gaming. It might seem like an unconventional choice, often seen as the domain of serious gamers, but I’ve found it to be one of the most flexible, controllable, and educational platforms available. If you’re looking to build a family gaming library that lasts and want true, granular control over your children's digital world, it might be time to look beyond the console and see what the PC has to offer.
Photo from the archives: both of my kids' first times gaming on their PCs during the pandemic. This ended up being one of their only ways to play with friends during that saga.
Parental Controls: Your Dashboard for Digital Safety
This is where the decision-making process should start for any parent. Today, every major platform has invested heavily in creating sophisticated, app-based parental control ecosystems. The idea that console controls are just a simple "on/off switch" is a thing of the past. However, they operate on different philosophies, and understanding this difference is key to choosing the right fit for your family.
Steam's "Steam Families": The Ultimate Library Curator
Steam’s recently overhauled "Steam Families" system is a game-changer for parents who want granular control over content. It allows an adult to create a family group of up to six members and manage the entire experience from the Steam client or a mobile device. Its philosophy is built around library curation.
- Shared and Curated Library: All games owned by any family member are pooled into a single, shared library. From this pool, you can hand-pick exactly which games each child is allowed to see and play. This means your teenager can access their age appropriate games while a younger child’s view is limited to only the titles you’ve approved, all from the same shared collection.
- Total Control Over Interaction: You decide if your child can browse the Steam store, see community-generated content (like forums and artwork), or access their friends list and chat features. You can disable all of it or just parts of it, giving you total control over their online exposure.
- Remote Purchase and Playtime Management: A child can add a game to their cart and send a purchase request directly to your phone. You can approve and pay for it remotely, no matter where you are. The system also allows you to set daily playtime limits and review reports on what your child has been playing.
Modern Console Controls: Real-Time Management at Your Fingertips
Consoles like Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo have developed powerful parental control apps that focus more on real-time user management. They are perfect for parents who want to actively supervise and adjust permissions on the fly.
- Xbox (Family Settings App): Often considered the gold standard, this app lets you set daily screen time limits, get "time's up" notifications, and even remotely pause the console from your phone. It has an "Ask to Buy" feature for all purchases and provides detailed activity reports. A huge advantage is that these settings can apply across both the family's Xbox and their Windows PCs, creating a unified safety net.
- PlayStation 5 (Family Management): Through the PlayStation App, you can set monthly spending limits, manage playtime (with an option to force a log-out when time expires), and restrict games by age rating. A standout feature is the exception request system, where a child can ask for permission to play a specific game or use chat features that are otherwise blocked, which you can approve or deny.
- Nintendo Switch (Parental Controls App): This app provides daily playtime limits (which can be customised for each day of the week), reports on which games are being played, and the ability to "whitelist" specific games that fall outside the general age rating you've set for your child.
Ultimately, the choice comes down to what kind of control you prefer. Steam excels at letting you build and curate a safe library from the ground up, while consoles excel at giving you the tools to manage your child's activity in the moment.
The Philosophy of Play: Perpetual Licences vs. Subscription Culture
Beyond safety features, it's important to consider the values that different purchasing models teach our children about consumption and ownership. This is the new frontline in digital parenting.
The biggest shift in gaming is the rise of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, which offer a massive, rotating library of games for a monthly fee. The catch is that you are only ever renting access. The moment you stop paying, the games disappear.
This model can inadvertently normalise a "renter's mindset" for our children, subtly teaching them a lesson reflective of the phrase, "you'll own nothing and be happy". It conditions them to accept a state of perpetual payment for temporary access, where the things they enjoy can vanish at any time based on a corporation's licensing deals. This relies on powerful psychological principles like "loss aversion"—the fear of losing access to something makes it harder to cancel, even if it's no longer being used.
Steam and other PC storefronts primarily operate on a more traditional model: you purchase a perpetual licence for a game. While it's important to know you don't legally "own" the digital file, this model feels like ownership. You pay once, and the game remains in your library indefinitely. This approach teaches a different set of values:
- Stability and Permanence: Your child's favourite game won't suddenly be removed because a licensing deal expired.
- Strategic Spending: This teaches patience and the value of shopping around for a good deal.
- Delayed Gratification: Saving up for a specific game that will be a permanent part of a collection teaches a different lesson than the instant, but fleeting, gratification of an all-you-can-eat subscription.
The Value Proposition: Building a Library on a Budget
A long-standing myth is that Steam's massive seasonal sales are the only place to find deep discounts. While these sales are great, the modern gaming marketplace is far more competitive. Today, the digital stores on PlayStation and Xbox offer sales that are just as frequent and often feature the same games at identical discount levels.
The true economic advantage of PC gaming comes from its open and competitive ecosystem.
- Third-Party Retailers: Unlike the "walled garden" of console stores, the PC market has numerous authorised digital retailers like Humble Bundle and GreenManGaming that sell official Steam keys, often at prices lower than Steam's own store.
- The Epic Games Store: Steam's biggest competitor, the Epic Games Store, has a game-changing offer for families on a budget: a weekly free game giveaway. Every single week, users can claim one or more high-quality games—from indie gems to major blockbusters—for free, which are then permanently added to their library. Over a year, a family can build a library of dozens of games without spending a dime.
Of course, consoles have a major economic advantage of their own: physical media. The ability to buy used games, trade them in for credit, or lend a disc to a friend offers a level of value and flexibility that is completely absent in the all-digital world. Although over time this seems to be dying.
The Flexibility of PC Gaming: Play Your Way
One of the most compelling reasons our family chose the PC route is its incredible flexibility. Unlike a console, which is a fixed box that connects to a TV, the PC ecosystem allows you to tailor your entire gaming experience to your family’s needs, budget, and lifestyle.
- A Device for Every Situation: With Steam, your game library isn't tied to a single box in the living room. You can play on a powerful desktop computer for the best graphics, a convenient laptop for gaming in any room, or even a compact PC connected to your main television for a console-like couch experience. This freedom means gaming can fit into your family's life, not the other way around.
- The Steam Deck: The Best of Both Worlds: This powerful handheld device is a game-changer. It’s a portable gaming PC that plays your entire Steam library on the go. It offers the pick-up-and-play convenience that makes the Nintendo Switch so popular, but it runs the games you already have in your library and supports all of Steam’s robust parental controls right on the device.
- In-House Streaming with Remote Play: Steam’s Remote Play feature is a fantastic tool for families. If you have one powerful gaming PC in the house, you can stream games from it to less powerful devices, like an old laptop or a tablet. This means a child can play a graphically demanding game on a basic device in their room, while the main PC does all the heavy lifting.
- Customise to Your Needs: The PC platform is all about choice. You can use any controller you like—Xbox, PlayStation, or countless others. You can upgrade components over time to keep up with new games, turning the PC into a long-term investment that grows with your family. This contrasts with the closed ecosystems of consoles, where you are limited to the hardware and accessories approved by the manufacturer.
The Hardware Question: Freedom vs. Simplicity
When you buy a console, you're buying a streamlined, "plug-and-play" appliance. This simplicity is a huge draw for many families who want a dedicated gaming machine without the hassle of managing drivers, updates, or hardware compatibility.
The idea that consoles have poor support for older games is also outdated. Both Microsoft and Sony have invested heavily in game preservation:
- Xbox Series X/S: These consoles can play nearly all Xbox One games, hundreds of curated Xbox 360 titles, and a selection of original Xbox games. Many of these older titles are enhanced with features like FPS Boost and Auto HDR, making them look and play better than ever.
- PlayStation 5: The PS5 is backward compatible with the vast majority of the 4,000+ games in the PS4 library. While it doesn't play older discs, a large library of classic PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles is available through the PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.
This of course needs to be considered against Steam's library of over 239,000 titles. The PC platform's respect for history is unparalleled, but running very old games can sometimes require technical know-how, like finding community-made patches or using special software. Consoles, in contrast, offer a curated and hassle-free retro experience for a large but finite list of classic games.
Beyond the Box: The PC as a Family Project
Instead of just buying a box, consider building a PC with your child. This may sound intimidating, but it's often compared to assembling Lego blocks and is an incredibly rewarding experience.
- Teaches How Technology Works: Building a PC demystifies technology. Your child will learn firsthand about the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, and how all the components work together. This can spark a genuine interest in STEM fields like computer science and engineering.
- Instils a Sense of Pride and Responsibility: Kids who build their own computers have a deeper appreciation for them. They take care of it with pride because they know firsthand how much money and time went into building it.
- A Lesson in Budgeting and Value: The process can be a fantastic financial literacy lesson. Children can do extra chores or save allowance and birthday money to earn each component, learning the value of saving for a long-term goal.
My kids' original PCs were old HP business desktops that were converted to gaming PCs with a new case and GPU. They had to name each component and discuss its purpose as we built them together.
A Word on Other Digital Playgrounds
Of course, dedicated gaming platforms aren't the only places kids play. Platforms like Minecraft have become powerful educational tools, used in classrooms worldwide to teach everything from coding and problem-solving to history and art.
However, a platform like Roblox, while immensely popular and creative, requires a much higher level of parental vigilance. Its open, user-generated nature has led to significant safety concerns that are now the subject of major lawsuits across the United States.
- Predators and Grooming: Lawsuits filed by families and US states like Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas allege that the platform has been used by predators to groom, exploit, and abuse children. The claims state that Roblox’s inadequate age verification and unmoderated chat features create a "hunting ground" for abusers.
- Normalisation of Gambling: A class-action lawsuit alleges Roblox facilitates illegal gambling for minors. Third-party casino sites allow children to wager their Robux, the in-game currency bought with real money, creating what some researchers have called "literally just child gambling".
- Inadequate Safety Measures: The lawsuits claim that despite knowing about these issues for years, the company prioritised user growth over implementing effective safety measures like robust age verification or stricter moderation, allegedly misleading parents about the platform's safety.
While Roblox has announced new safety policies in response, these serious issues highlight the risks of platforms where content is largely unvetted. On Steam, each game is a distinct product. You, the parent, can research it, decide if it's appropriate, and then grant access. This structure provides a clearer, more easily managed boundary for your child.
Conclusion: A Platform Built for Your Modern Family
Choosing the right gaming platform is about finding the best fit for your family's values, budget, and, most importantly, your approach to digital safety. Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation offer incredible, streamlined experiences that prioritise simplicity and ease of use.
However, if your priorities are unparalleled parental control, teaching long-term value, and turning screen time into a hands-on educational opportunity, the PC ecosystem powered by Steam presents a compelling case. It empowers you with the tools to be the true curator of your children's digital world. It may require a little more setup than plugging in a console, but the long-term benefits of security, learning, and control are well worth the investment.
Choosing the right device is the first step. The next is ensuring it runs on a network that's both fast and safe. While we don't sell gaming hardware, we specialise in creating the secure, high-performance home network foundation that makes for a great gaming experience. Contact All Families Secure today for a free consultation on building a childsafe network for your home.