Topic: PLEASE HELP! I'm a stupid dad who can't set up parental controls.

Firstly, apologies to everyone, who knows what they are talking about on here. I'm a complete novice here and haven't a clue what I am doing. I warn you in advance that whoever is generous enough to help is going to have to treat me like a five year old.

With all of us currently in self isolation, I am desperately trying to set up Fortnite on my Kid's Switch so that he can play with his mates on line. He has a Nintendo account (set up in my name) and I have set up an Epic Games account (also in my name). I have manged to link the two so that I can log on to the game itself but when I try to set up Parental Controls and click on the icon in the drop down menu, it asks me to link an email address. I click on the button to set this up and get taken to a page, which looks like the Epic login page, offering me the option to either set up an account or log in. The obvious path is to try to login as I have an account. However when I do this I get the following message

'INVALID CLIENT
Sorry, the client that sent you here did not pass the parameters needed for you to log in'

I have tried taking the set up account route and but get so far only to be told that I need a 'Create for client ID'

I have also tried setting up another user on the Nintendo account but each time I get as far as this and cannot get any further. Has anyone got any ideas? I've contacted Epic and had a response asking for further details about my Epic account but that was a few days ago now and all has gone quiet since. I have an increasingly frustrated kid, and I'm beginning to feel like the stereotypical technostupid dad.

Thanks

@mo_delaun haha, I'll see what I can do to help you

Can you play the game?
The only time people here ask about parental controls for Fortnite, is because they can't enable voice chat (They can play the game, otherwise)

As far as parental controls go with the Switch & Fortnite, parental controls are on the Switch. So, at this moment, I'm not sure you need to be messing with the epicgames website - and that's why I asked, "can you play the game?". It's been a while since I initially set up the game, so I can't recall if the epicgames website is needed to play the game.

Switch parental controls: Open the Gear icon on the Switch home screen, then select Parental Controls. (if you opted for the Switch Parental Control app, you can only access settings with the app. Either place is easy to use. So don't get nervous 😉)

Hi Woomy

Thanks for coming back to me pal. I feel like I have become the parent I used to make fun of when they couldn't operate the VCR.

If you don't mind I will tell you what I have managed to do so far. It's a bit long winded but it may help and I don't really know how better to explain. So far I have managed to link both accounts in order to allow me to log into the game itself on the switch. Then when I open the game up on the console it loads fine and opens up in the 'press to start' page. I hit start and it logs in and loads without problem. Once open I go through the usual different pages until it ends up at what appears to be the home page (character standing on an illuminated disc in the middle of the screen, medal punchcard to the left buttons to 'CHANGE' and 'PLAY!' on the right. In the top right of the screen there is the menu button, which when pressed pulls up a 'SOCIAL' menu on the left and a general menu on the right with 'Settings' 'Report Player' 'Feedback', 'Code of conduct' etc on the right. Amongst those is 'Parental Controls'.
So I have pressed that button to set up the controls (the kid is 12 and I'm a dim parent, so better safe than sorry, right?). Anyway, it then brings me to a page, which says 'Enable Parental controls to specify the Fortnite settings that are right for your family'. Below this is a button marked 'SET UP PARENTAL CONTROLS'. I've pressed this and it takes me to Step 1 of 2 - SET UP EMAIL ADDRESS, which features a button saying ' SETUP EMAIL'. It also features a 'NEXT' button but this is blacked out. So I press the button to set up the email address.
This is when it suddenly hits me with a Fortnite 'TERMS OF SERVICE' page, where I have to accept the terms (a bit late if I have already managed to log on to the game but however). So I hit agree. It is then that I am taken to what looks like the standard log in page for the Epic web page. The initial page is a 'Sign Up' page but there is an option to 'Sign in' at the bottom of the page. I have tried both options. When I sign in using my recently set up Epic account (which I only set up to play and which has successfully linked to the Nintendo account) it hits me with the 'INVALID CLIENT' message, saying that
'Sorry, the client that sent you here did not pass the parameters needed for you to log in'
and when I try to Sign up it will not allow me to create the account, giving me a message saying that I need a Create for Client ID.

I just can't get past this, however I try. I have looked on the Nintendo Parental Controls, but there does not seem to be anything on there that will either act as an alternative to the Fortnite controls or even allow me to unlock the Fortnite sign in.

Sorry if this all seems a bit of a mess.

Sorry, I forgot to add. There doesn't appear to be any problem actually playing the game itself, which is why I am so confused when it comes to not being able to set up Parental Controls. The only parental controls I can see on the switch itself (I do use my phone) seem to relate more to time limits and age restrictions. The controls on the game itself I think allow you to limit his communication to just his mates and permitted friends. It can also block out profanity etc. If you know of others on the switch please let me know.

Thanks for helping

@mo_delaun You're fine. It's a new user interface. Not a vcr.

As far as I know, the only reason anyone sets up parental controls is to allow or not-allow voice chat(because of strangers or foul language, etc). Or are you doing this to limit transactions? If your concern is restricting money transactions, I'll admit, I haven't delved into that. ....But, it could It could be that logging in the way you are trying, within the game, is one of two possible ways to set up parental controls. With the Switch, you can have purchases password protected. Any time a purchase is made, a password is needed to allocate the funds. Plus, Fortnite runs on PC, Playstation, and Xbox. Fortnite came to the Switch last, like an afterthought. The login feature that's roadblocking you could be a carryover or redundancy from one of those other platfoms, or just a personalized option.

So, it's possible, you don't need to do that login baloney. I can definitely help you, if your concern is voice chat (turning it on or disabling it.) On the Switch, if you opt to use the Switch Parental Controls app, your kid cannot change parental settings on the console, it can only be done through the app, on your phone, which will be password protected.

If your concern keeping your kid from buying stuff, I would think the Switch purchase password can restrict that. That's how I do it. In order to make a purchase on other games, the game still takes you to an eshop page & requires my password to make the password for every purchase. I didn't want my nieces to buy stuff by mistake.

To be honest he's a good kid and so I'm not too worried about purchases. Even if he was to try, I doubt he would be able as I have not saved any of my bank details to any of the accounts. He (for the moment) is happy, simply playing the free version. I have no doubt that will change if he stays with the game, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it.

According to the Fortnite guide I can also block mature language via the screen text so that any bad language is replaced with heart symbols. That would be one thing. I think you can mute individuals who swear over over voice so again I think he will be okay there. The Fortnite Parental control also allows you to hide his name from non friends and hide non friend names from him, so that he can essentially play in his own little group of mates. It also allows him to auto decline friend requests from anyone other than his mates in order to avoid adults trying to befriend him. Again, I am pretty happy that he wouldn't accept anyway, but why take the chance if you have the option to block from the start.

@mo_delaun I believe I solved it.

Solution:
You have to go on epic game's website with to make the account with your computer/phone/tablet. There you set up your account and a six digit pin. After you've done that, then open the game on the Switch. When you go to the in-game parental controls, it asks for that six digit pin for access. I can access parental controls in the game, and it's protected by that six digit pin number. And I think that's what we were after.

It would be nice if the game said you have to go online to make the account, but it doesn't. Probably due to the fact that this game runs on multiple platforms.

@mo_delaun So, I believe that's the solution that I just posted above. Let me know if it works! This question may come up again, and if that's the solution, then this can help others in the future.

Hi Woomy

I think our posts are crossing in the ether, as I've just seen your other post after I posted my last, above.

Basically I want to be able to restrict him to talking with his mates, so hiding his username from those other than in his own group of mates and blocking others from contacting him with friend requests would be the minimum. I think I can probably live with the foul language as I think you can mute the worst of it on voice (or tell me otherwise).

Thanks

Hmmm

Okay, I don't think I saw that the last time, but I may well have missed it.

I'll give it a go now.

Thanks for sticking with me.

@mo_delaun Forgive me. After I typed a response, I realized I left some stuff out, and edited them. Some people only read the email notification they get, which won't show the edits. To avoid that issue, I deleted a couple comments and reposted. So, if you saw a couple duplicate-looking email notifications, that's why. A bit sloppy on my part, but we got there

Hi Woomy

I'm gutted. I was sure that would work but even though I set up a pin number on the account I'm still being asked to set up an email address when I open the parental controls page.

I am completely baffled. If it was a case of me not even being able to play the game, I would think it had something to do with one of the existing nintendo settings, but I can play the game without parental controls, I just don't get it.

@mo_delaun Did you leave game on, or sleeping, while you made the account online? If you did that, it could be that you just need to reboot the game for your account changes to be applied. If you're tired of it for now, though, I get it.

So here's something odd. When the 'set up email address' button took me to the Epic sign in page I tried to initially sign up rather than log in. When I put in a display name, it recognised it as the one from my existing account. So then I went to the log in and tried putting in my display name and my password and it immediately told me that they were incorrect credentials. Now when I put in my email address and password it at least tries to log in and on some occasions even allows me to complete the validation stage where I have to prove im not a robot. So it seems that it might recognise the email but something is blocking me from actually going further.

Mate, I will stay here all night if it means I can get this sorted. I'm just concerned about wasting your day.

I've tried rebooting the whole console but no go.

There are also little icons at the top of the sign in page, one of which is a Nintendo switch icon. Ive tried clicking on that but it simply tries to verify and then goes to a white page with the message 'this page cannot be displayed' and a return to previous page button.

getting the Epic Games sign in is correct.

Regarding what I saw: when I initially set up on the Epicgames page, after I signed in, it took me to the nintendo account sign in., then I think it went back to epicgames for Fortnite, I believe.

I don't mind helping. Self quarantine has gotten boring.
EDIT: plus it's cloudy, gray, and rainy out. So, I'm not missing anything outside.

@mo_delaun So, when I go to epicgames fortnite page, I sign in. After I'm signed in, I see my username in the upper right of the page. From the username, select "ACCOUNT". On the accounts page, scroll down until you see Parental Controls. Make sure they are turned on.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/home

Then, when you go to Fortnite on on the Switch, parental controls will prompt you for the six digit pin number.

I feel your pain. We are all in day 10 of our isolation here and I can tell you something, I don't think any of us here will ever turn to a life of crime if being inside is anything like this

OK so I clicked again on the parental control button in the menu and got the 'Step 1 of 2 - Set up email' message. Clicked on that and then verified terms. Got taken to the sign in page and then tried so sign up with a different email account. No go. All I got was the 'Create for Client ID required' message. Tried clicking on the log in icon at the bottom of the page and tried logging on. Same again. 'Client that sent you did not have the parameters...' message.

What I have found however, is that the same controls are available on the general settings. So if this doesn't work, I may just set them up there and tell my kid that if he breaks the rules he will self isolate without his Switch for a year

I'm starting to making mistakes now. Forgive me. I probably need dinner.

I'm not clear if you can successfully sign into epicgames via the link I pasted above? Once you're successfully signed in there, as I described above, go to to your username in the header, select ACCOUNTS, then you get the "general settings page", scroll down until you see Parenal Controls, and make sure they are turned on.

I need to eat something. I can check back in 30 min.

Yeah, I've helped people troubleshoot with software before when I worked for Dupont automotive paint. So, I know sometimes there's just one thing that's been missed, and it can be tough sorting it out when we can't see what the other is seeing. But that's where my patience comes from haha