Xbox 360: Family settings

The Family settings on Xbox 360 gives a humongous amount of flexibility in managing the console.  It gives the console owners a privilege of setting permissions to all the family members according to their gaming environments.  It is just not about deciding what games and DVD movies to permit, but also controlling the ability to establish Xbox  Live memberships and access.

Here's how you configure Family Settings for:

1. Friends online
2. Communication settings
   
3. Viewing the Gamer profile
4. Sharing Gamer profile
5. Online status
6. Online games
7. Member content
8. Downloadable content
   

• You can manage the console in such a way that you can choose to approve or reject your child's new online friends. 
• If other people on Xbox Live want to add your child's profile onto their friend's list, you can approve or you can give access to your child to give an approval for the same.

Here's how you configure the settings for new online friends:

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Privacy and Friends -> New Online Friends.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To allow your child to approve and send new friend requests, select Approval Not Required.
   • If you want to approve the new friend request, select Require Approval. (If you select this option, you should approve any new friend requests that your child wants to send).

Here's how you configure the communications settings for Xbox Live:

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Privacy and Friends -> Communications.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To permit your child to communicate with everyone on Live, select Everyone.
   • To restrict your child to communicate with only people on his/her friends list, select Friends Only.
   • To block everyone from communicating with your child, select Blocked, but he/she would still receive new friend requests.
   • All the Picture messages and video chat through the Xbox Live Vision camera are managed by the Communications control.
     
   • To restrict your child from viewing video and images, set the option to Blocked or Friends Only.

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Privacy and Friends -> Gamer Profile Viewing.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To permit your child to view all the gamer profiles online, select Everyone.
   • To restrict your child to view the gamer profiles of people on his/her friends list, select Friends Only.
     
   • To restrict your child from viewing any gamer profile, select Blocked.

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Privacy and Friends -> Gamer Profile Sharing.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To permit everyone to view your child's gamer profile online, select Everyone.
   • To restrict your child's profile to be viewed only by the people on his/her friends list, select Friends Only.
     
   • To restrict everyone from viewing your child's gamer profile, select Blocked.

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Privacy and Friends -> Online Status.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To permit every one to see your child's online status and currect activity, select Everyone.
   • To restrict your child's status and activity viewable only by his/her friend's on the list, select Friends Only.
   • To restrict every one from seeing your child's online status and activity, select Blocked.

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
   
   (Note:  When you sign in, the console will load the existing profile,  if there are more than one profile, you need to choose the one on which you want to make changes.  After choosing the profile,  you need to enter your own password when asked.)
   
3. Select Online Gameplay -> Xbox 360 Online Games.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To allow your child to play Xbox Live games with others online, select Allowed.
   • To restrict your child from playing Xbox Live games with others online, select Blocked.

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Content -> Member Content.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To allow your child to access member content, select Allowed.
   • Select Friends Only to allow your child to access content created by people on their friends list.
   • Select Blocked to block your child from accessing all member content.

You can decide whether your child can download live games, game extensions, demos, and other items from Xbox Live.  If you choose to block this option, your child can still download free content.

Here's how you configure the settings for downloads:

1. From the System area of the Xbox Dashboard (if you are using your console for the first time, you need to start from Initial Setup Complete screen)
   
2. Select Family Settings -> Xbox Live Controls and sign in using the password for your Microsoft Passport Network account.
3. Select Content -> Downloadable Content.
4. Choose one of the settings below:
   • To permit your child to download all the types of content mentioned above from Xbox Live then select Allowed.
   • To restrict your child from downloading the content mentioned above, select Blocked.  Your child will still be able to get free downloadable content.

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