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  1. Entertainment

Steam upgrades its family plan, allowing your kids to ping you to pay for their shopping cart and get you banned by cheating on a shared account

News
By Hope Bellingham published 19 March 2024

Parents are about to get a lot of payment requests

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Steam Deck
(Image credit: Valve)
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Steam has rolled out a new family plan that lets your kids request payments for games and can even get you banned by cheating on a shared account. 

On March 18, Steam introduced 'Steam Families,' which combines the already existing Family Sharing and Steam Family View while adding a few more features. The new plan allows you to invite up to five users that you can manage from the Steam Client, mobile device, or web browser. All five family members will have access to a range of features with the adults determining what child members can get up to.

Just like before, the new version of Steam Family will let everyone in the plan gain access to the shareable games in your library. Since each user will have their own profile, you don't need to worry about anyone accessing your saves or earning your achievements for you. It also isn't restricted when another member is online, meaning you won't have to wait around to take turns.

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Like with all family accounts, Parental Controls are available. In short, the adults of the account can allow access to appropriate games, restrict access to the Steam Store, Community, or Friends Chat, set playtime limits, view playtime reports, recover a child's account if they lose their password, and more. 

Perhaps most interestingly, the Parental Controls also let the kids on the plan send requests to the adults for extended playtime and to purchase items in their shopping cart on their behalf. I can already see a lot of kids sending constant requests to their parents for new games.

At the end of the post, Valve has an FAQ for Steam's new family plan. Alongside the usual questions like 'Who can be in a Steam family?' and 'Do I need to share all of my games with my family?' you'll find the question 'What happens if my brother gets banned for cheating while playing my game?' which seems very specific. 

In case you were curious, it's bad news if your brother does happen to be a cheater, as: "If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game."

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Take a look at our upcoming PC games list to find out what games you could soon be sharing on Steam's new family plan. 

TOPICS
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Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
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News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

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