You can turn parental controls on or off on your PS4 with these steps.
Shutterstock
You can use parental controls to limit what your kids are allowed to do on their PS4.
These can be turned on or off, regardless of whether you know your PS4's parental control password.
If you don't remember the passcode, you'll need to restore default settings.
Parental controls can be a godsend, helping parents limit what their kids can do on a variety of devices, including PCs, smartphones, and gaming consoles like the PS4.
On the PS4, they help control screen time and the kind of content young players are exposed to. If you enabled parental controls at some point in the past and now want to remove them, here's what you need to know.
How to turn off parental controls on a PS4 with the passcode
The default passcode for parental controls (the PS4 calls these controls "Family Management") is "0000," but you're given an opportunity to change it when you turn on parental control restrictions.
That's a good idea, because the default passcode is not only easy to guess, but the PS4 also displays the default passcode on every parental control passcode screen.
If you know it, turning off this feature is easy.
1. Using the controller, select Settings.
2. Select Parental Controls/Family Management.
The default passcode isn't much of a secret since it's displayed on the passcode screen.
Dave Johnson/Insider
3. Select PS4 System Restrictions.
4. Enter the passcode.
There are a slew of parental controls in the Parental Controls/Family Management Settings menu.
Dave Johnson/Insider
5. Now you're in the PS4 System Restrictions menu. There's no single "turn it all off" switch. Instead, you need to select each item on this page and turn off the parental control restriction if it's enabled.
Work your way through the PS4 System Restrictions, turning off any controls you previously enabled.
Dave Johnson/Insider
6. For example, select New User Creation and Guest Login, then select Allowed. Press the Back button and then repeat this for "Web Filter," "Default Parental Controls," and so on.
Most parental controls are either "allowed" or "not allowed."
Dave Johnson/Insider
7. When you change the status of all the entries on this page to Allowed, you've turned off all of the parental controls.
How to turn off parental controls on a PS4 without the passcode
If you don't have the passcode, the only way to disable parental controls is by resetting the PS4 to its factory conditions.
1. Using the controller, navigate to Settings.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Activate as Your Primary PS4 and choose Deactivate.
Deactivate this console as your primary PS4 before you perform the reset.
Dave Johnson/Insider
4. You may need to sign back in with your user account. After that, navigate back to Settings.
5. Select Initialization.
6. Select Restore Default Settings. Be sure not to select Initialize PS4, because that will completely erase your PS4's hard drive.
Choose to restore the default settings, which will reset the parental controls passcode to "0000."
Dave Johnson/Insider
7. After the restore is complete, the parental controls password will be reset back to "0000." You can now follow the instructions for turning off parental controls with a passcode listed above.
