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Setting up a game for a child in the household

Three separate systems decide what a young player can do, and they are configured in three different places: the device, the store the game came from, and the game account itself. Setting one and assuming the others follow is the reason a household with careful settings still ends up with an unexpected charge.

Short answer

Check the game's classification on the Australian Classification Board's own register rather than relying on a store listing. Then set controls in all three places: device-level restrictions, purchase approval at the store, and chat and privacy settings inside the game account. Keep an adult's payment method off a child's account entirely — it is the single change that prevents the most common problem.

Classification, and where to check it

Computer games distributed in Australia are subject to the national classification scheme, and classification decisions are made and published by the Australian Classification Board. Its site holds a searchable record of decisions along with the consumer advice that accompanies them, which is more informative than the classification letter on its own — the advice describes what produced the rating.

This site does not state a classification for any particular game, including the one it covers by name. Classifications are decisions about specific versions of specific products, they change, and repeating one second-hand is how misinformation spreads. Look the title up on the Board's own register and read what is recorded there.

Two limits are worth knowing. Classification describes content, not the behaviour of other players, so it says nothing about what might be said in a chat channel. And where a game is distributed through an app store under a self-assessment arrangement, the rating shown in that store may not correspond to a Board decision at all. The Board's register is the authoritative place to look.

The three layers of control

What each layer can do. A control set at one layer does not apply at the others.
Layer	Set where	Covers
Device	Operating system settings	Which apps run, screen time, age limits on installs, browser filtering
Store	The store account	Purchase approval, spending limits, stored payment methods, age-rated downloads
Game	The game account and in-game options	Chat, friend requests, visibility to other players, some spending options

Gaps between the layers cause the surprises. A device with a strict age limit does not prevent purchases inside an app that is already installed. A store with purchase approval enabled does not silence in-game chat. And settings inside a game account do nothing about a second device the child also uses.

Device level

Every current operating system includes family controls, and they are found in comparable places: Screen Time on Apple devices, Family Link and the digital wellbeing settings on Android, Family Safety on Windows, and Screen Time again on macOS. What they offer overlaps considerably — age limits on installations, time allowances by day or by application, and approval requests that arrive on a parent's device.

Two pieces of practical advice apply to all of them. Set a passcode for the controls that differs from the device unlock code, because a shared code makes the controls decorative. And check the settings again after a major operating system update, since new features occasionally arrive with defaults that have not been reviewed.

The eSafety Commissioner publishes setup guidance for parents and carers covering the major platforms and devices, including material aimed at families with children of different ages in the same household.

Store level

Turn on approval for purchases and free downloads, not purchases alone — free downloads can contain purchasable content.
Remove stored payment methods from any account a child signs into, and use gift cards or a controlled balance instead where one is needed.
Check whether a password is required for every purchase or only the first in a session; the latter setting is the origin of most unexpected bills.
Set the account's age correctly when it is created, since it drives the store's own rating filters.
Review purchase history occasionally. It is the fastest way to notice a pattern before it becomes a large number.

Where an unexpected charge has already happened, store refund processes handle this situation regularly and the payments and refunds page sets out the order to approach it in.

Inside the game account

Settings within a game account typically cover who can send messages, who can send friend or trade requests, whether a profile is visible, and sometimes whether purchases are possible at all. The available options differ from one title to another, and the place to find them for a particular game is that game's own settings and support documentation rather than a general guide.

What is worth checking in any title: whether chat is on by default, whether it is restricted to an approved list or open to everyone, whether voice is separate from text, and how a player is reported or blocked. Knowing the reporting route before it is needed is the difference between a problem being dealt with and being endured.

Star Stable Online is the game this site covers by name. Its available account settings, chat options and family-related features are documented by the vendor; the description we work from records only that it is an online game played after creating an account, on desktop, mobile and tablet devices, and it would be wrong to invent detail beyond that.

Visit the Star Stable Online website

Paid link: Navigorex Group s.r.o. receives a commission for sign-ups made through it. That has no bearing on the guidance above, and no effect on what you would pay.

Purchases with randomised contents

Some online games sell items whose contents are randomised, so that the buyer does not know in advance what a purchase will yield. This is a feature worth identifying before a child plays a game rather than afterwards, because it changes what spending controls need to do — a per-purchase limit means little when purchases are small, repeatable and driven by an unknown outcome.

How to check: look at the game's store or shop screen for anything sold as a box, crate, chest, pack or draw, and read the consumer advice recorded with the classification on the Australian Classification Board register, which describes the elements that informed the decision. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is the regulator for consumer protection matters generally and publishes material about how products are presented and sold to consumers.

Where such purchases exist, the effective control is removing the ability to spend rather than limiting it: no stored payment method, and a fixed balance if any spending is permitted at all. That is a household decision rather than a technical one, and it is a reasonable position to decide a particular game is not suitable for a particular child.

What to watch out for

Search results for "free" currency, items or accounts are aimed squarely at younger players and are a common route into account compromise. It is worth naming this out loud with a child who plays, alongside the point that nobody legitimate asks for an account password. The scams currently circulating are described by Scamwatch, and our account security page covers what to do if something has already gone wrong.

The part settings cannot do

Controls handle purchases, installation and time. They do not handle what another player says, whether a child feels able to mention it, or what happens at a friend's house on a device with no controls at all. The arrangement that consistently works better than any setting is a standing agreement that bringing a problem to an adult does not cost the child access to the game — because the anticipated consequence, not the incident, is what produces the silence.

Playing the game occasionally, or sitting alongside while it is played, does more for this than any amount of monitoring software. It also makes the settings conversation concrete rather than abstract, since you will have seen the chat channel and the shop screen yourself.

Where to take a problem

eSafety Commissioner: Australia's online safety regulator. Handles reports of cyberbullying affecting children, image-based abuse and seriously harmful online content, and publishes guidance for parents and carers.
Australian Classification Board: Classification decisions and the consumer advice recorded with them, searchable by title.
Scamwatch: Reports of scams, including those aimed at players through games and gaming communities.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: Consumer protection, including guidance on consumer guarantees that apply to purchases made in Australia.