Here’s some for decent information for parents worrying about kids’ gaming habits. Sony is including new parental controls in the Playstation 4 Firmware Update 5.50. This is good news for parents worrying over their kids’ gaming habits; bad news for the kids who sneak out to play Call of Duty at 2 in the morning. he update, which is currently undergoing closed beta testing, includes several quality of life features as well.
Playstation 4 Play Time Management Feature
Even prior to the release of 5.50, Sony already provides a host of controls for parents to use. These include limits to spending and internet access. Patch 5.50 increases this level of control by introducing Play Time Management. Essentially, this allows parents to set a maximum number of hours each account can play per day, as well as limits what time each account can play.
While these tools may look like bad news for kids, they do encourage a healthier gaming lifestyle on the whole. Time limits on a Playstation 4 allow parents to lock out access during school hours, or late nights during school days. Notifications inform how much time is left so as to allow the player the opportunity to save.
Parenting and Responsible Gaming
The video game industry has faced its fair share of controversies over the years. The most recent is EA’s 2017 lootbox disaster, but one of the most persistent is regarding the video game habits of children. According to the annual DQ Institute report, children spend 32 hours per week online, and that is saying nothing about how much time they spend playing offline games.
These new features are a good gesture by Sony, addressing the issue of unmoderated game time.
Playstation 4 Update 5.50 Additional Features
In addition to Play Time Management, Update 5.50 will include several other features. PS4 owners will be able to import images via USB into their consoles, allowing further personalized backgrounds. Another key feature will be the new Supersampling mode, allowing the console to play games in higher resolutions on HDTV.
The update will also include several ease-of-access features, the most prominent of which, are two new tabs. The “This PS4” will list all installed software on the device. The account tab will list all software owned by the PSN account.