As family-centric consoles, the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 come with several features that allow parents to set limits on their kids’ playtime. One such feature is Nintendo Switch Parental Controls – an app that lets the user set age restrictions on games, GameChat permissions, and most importantly, playtime limits for youngsters. Less tech-savy parents should pay attention to how they’ve set up their desired parent controls though, as Reddit user Ok_Buddy_9087 learned when they found one of their children playing well past their allotted time limit.
After confiscating the Nintendo Switch from their son, their younger daughter snitched that the time limit can supposedly be bypassed by turning the console off and on once the timer is up. Eager to get to the bottom of this, the parent turned to Reddit in search of an answer.
As it turns out, the Nintendo Switch doesn’t forcibly shut down the game once the time limit is up unless you specifically turn on the “Suspend Play When Time’s Up” option in the Parental Controls app. Nintendo trusts that children who see the “Time’s up for now!” notification on the screen will stop playing and turn off the console (which is easier said than done when in the middle of an online Mario Kart race). Since forcing software to shut down can delete hours of progress depending on the game, Nintendo leaves it up to the parents’ discretion to activate Suspend Play.
Now that they know their son is simply dishonest instead of some Nintendo Switch hacker, Ok_Buddy_9087 will take preventive measures to ensure their child follows the time limit set for them. The Reddit post has sparked several anecdotes from users recollecting about how they outsmarted their parents tech-wise when they were younger. Technologies may change, but kids will always find ways to get a few extra minutes of video game time.
