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The Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app is a neat idea, allowing parents to manage various aspects of their little 'un's playtime from their phone / tablet. Its functionality and the speed with which it updates the log is certainly handy, and in a pinch parents can even set the console to automatically switch off when a specified playtime has been met.

It's not perfect, though, as we've discovered. We have the parental controls app synchronised to our system (back from when we were testing it out) and just recently went on a road trip with the console. Based on our experience the app has a surprising loophole.

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While away with the Switch we left it offline - Wi-Fi was never disabled, but we didn't actively connect it while on the move, either on the road or in a hotel. Having checked the parental app to see what it logged from that trip, it says we didn't play the system at all over the weekend, which is clearly wrong.

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We'd assumed that the Switch would log playtime when offline and then synchronise with the app when connected, but having refreshed the console and app it's not picking up any of that weekend gaming. Though parents can use some controls on the console itself to limit activities, the advanced features of the app seem to lose their use once the system is off the grid.

It's a bit of an odd oversight, though it's not something that can't easily be resolved through updates to the app and system itself. Until then, kids can play all they want once they get the thing offline, so going somewhere unfamiliar with the console would do the trick, even without needing to turn off the overall Wi-Fi.

Sleepovers = Breath of the Wild marathon sessions, it seems...