Topic: Parental Controls - Start time

Apologies if this has been asked before; did a search and found nothing relevant.

Since the day we put the parental controls on our child's switch and downloaded the parental control app on our phones, we've noticed that there isn't a 'start time', just a 'bedtime alarm'. This seems to be a huge hole in functionality, every other parental control has this feature but the Switch seems to just allow usage from 6am.

My child has a problem with impulse control and if we forget to physically take the switch away on a school night, they will sometimes go on it as soon as they wake up. We have to then take the Switch away and you can imagine what the result of that is; the morning's a disaster.

I contacted Nintendo support in the early days and was told what I already knew: there wasn't that feature and the "suggestion would be passed on". Nearly 3 years later and still hasn't been implemented.

Nintendo is such an expensive ecosystem, it beggars belief that they can't find resource to implement this fairly simple feature.

Could you set the time limit initially to something like 1 minute? Then change it to something more reasonable when you are allowing them to play.
I agree - a start time as well as an end time seems obvious, and that some sort of workaround should be unnecessary.

@Rambler
Thanks for the reply. The other issue with the parental controls is that you can't add time ad-hoc. The lowest time setting is 15 mins. If you give them another half hour, it becomes part of the schedule (they will always have 45 mins) until you set it back to 15 mins.

Pretty poor, right?

This goes beyond Nintendo control and requires a good family sit down and having honest conversations is what this sounds like it needs. No judgements but honest questions this would go along way to help the kids understand the situations going there. What's happening there goes far beyond Nintendo Parental controls can control or make behavior changes.

@SwitchForce Wow. So your answer to the OPs original question is essentially "parent better"?

@AnnoyingDad2020 The parental controls app on Switch is pretty basic to be honest and seems almost like an afterthought - something like the Microsoft one where you can set screen time day to day makes much more sense that what the Switch has.

I wondered if setting the parental controls age rating as low as it goes (3+?) might restrict whatever they are playing in the morning but it's not an ideal solution - would basically require the PIN entry for anything other than the lowest rating any other time of the day too. Obviously that's not going to make any difference if it's a 3+ rated game they are playing, but would stop them playing any other game in the morning.

You can set the time limit day-by-day, so could set the weekdays to 15mins and the weekend to whatever you're happy with. Worst case is they play for 15mins in the morning before it locks them out. Can use it as a carrot and stick - "Sorry, you used up all your time this morning so you can't play this afternoon".

@dmcc0 You are absolutely right, the switch parental controls are woefully inadequate.
You are right about Microsoft (and even Google’s) controls being well thought out, feature rich and robust.
For a company like Nintendo which presents itself as so family-friendly, it’s not providing parents with adequate tools.