Step 4 of 5

This step is written in general terms that apply to any product in the category, because every vendor's screens differ and screens change. What does not change is the order of the decisions and the value of writing down what you set.

What to have ready before you start

Four things, on the table, before anyone opens a sign-up page. An email address that an adult controls, ideally one used for accounts rather than for daily mail. A password that is not used anywhere else, long enough to be awkward, written somewhere the adults can find it. Your page from Steps 2 and 3, with the six answers on it. And half an hour that is not the last half hour before bedtime, because a rushed set-up is where the controls get skipped.

Decide, finally, whose name the account is in. If a child is the player, an adult holding the account means the adult receives the billing mail, can see the settings, can reset the password and can close it. If the vendor's terms require a parent or guardian to agree for a player under a stated age — a clause you found in Step 3 — this is the moment that clause applies.

The sign-up procedure, in order

1. Open the vendor's own site in the browser by typing the address, rather than through a search advertisement or a link in a message.
2. Create the account with the adult's email address and the new password. Decline anything optional while you are creating it; you can add things later, but it is tedious to remove them.
3. Turn off marketing email during sign-up if the option is offered. If it is not offered, check the account settings for it once you are in.
4. Open the account's security settings and turn on extra verification if the vendor offers it, using the adult's phone or email. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general guidance on why this matters for any account.
5. Open the privacy or communication settings and set them to the household's Step 2 position: who may contact the player, whether chat is on, whether the profile is visible to strangers.
6. Check whether the account has a payment method attached by default. If it does, and you did not intend it, remove it before going any further.
7. Install the game on the one device you nominated, from the vendor's own site or the device's official app store, and nowhere else.
8. Open the game once with the adult present, confirm the settings carried across, and leave the first real session for a time you agreed.
9. Write the account email, the renewal date if any, the cancellation method and the settings you chose on the same page you have been using. Put it where bills are kept.

Device-level controls, which sit outside the game

Every current phone, tablet and computer includes settings that limit what can be installed and what can be bought, independently of any game. They are in the device's own settings, under names like screen time, family settings, parental controls or restrictions. Two are worth setting today.

The first requires a password or fingerprint for every purchase, including purchases inside apps. This is the single control that prevents most accidental spending, and it is set once. The second limits what can be installed, which keeps the agreed device from quietly becoming three devices.

There are also time limits available at device level. Whether you use them or rely on an agreement with the child is a household judgement; the eSafety Commissioner publishes family guidance that discusses both approaches. Many households find that an agreement works better and the device control is the backstop.

Payment: the part worth ten extra minutes

If you are paying for anything, three decisions deserve to be made consciously rather than by default.

Which payment method. A card with a low limit, or a method that is not the household's main card, contains any mistake. Whether your bank offers a separate card or a spending control is worth asking.

Whether it is stored. A stored card makes the next purchase effortless, which is the point and also the risk. If the household's Step 2 position is a single yearly payment, there is no reason to leave a card on file afterwards.

Where the charge appears. Note the name that will show on the statement, because it is often the parent company rather than the game. Knowing it in advance prevents a legitimate charge being queried as fraud, and makes a genuinely wrong charge easier to spot.

If something is charged that should not have been, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law apply alongside the vendor's own refund policy, and the ACCC explains how consumer guarantees work and when to escalate. Contact the vendor first, in writing, and keep the reply.

The first session, and what to watch for

Sit with the player for the first twenty minutes, not to supervise but to see the same thing they see. Three things are worth noticing.

Where the game asks for money, and how often. Most games in this category introduce their store early. Seeing it together makes the household's rule about purchases concrete rather than theoretical.

How other players appear. Whether names are visible, whether messages arrive unprompted, and whether there is a block or report button that the player knows how to use. Finding the report button before it is needed is the point of the exercise.

Whether the settings you chose actually took effect. Occasionally a privacy setting applies only after a restart, or a chat option exists in two places. Checking on day one is far easier than discovering it in month three.

The record you keep afterwards

One page, kept with household paperwork, holding: the account email, where the password is stored, the renewal date and cancellation method, the settings chosen, the name that appears on the statement, and the date of set-up. It takes five minutes and is the difference between a calm cancellation and an afternoon of searching for a login.

Put a reminder in the household calendar a week before any renewal date. That reminder does more practical good than any other single action in this course.

The example household in Step 4

Our invented household sets the account up on a Saturday morning on the nominated laptop. The adult's account email is used, a new password is written in the place the household keeps passwords, and extra verification is switched on. Chat is set to the most limited option the vendor offers, matching the decision from Step 2.

They find a card already stored from a previous purchase on the same device and remove it, then set the device to require a password for every purchase. They pay for a short period rather than a year, note the renewal date, and put a calendar reminder a week before it. The first twenty minutes are played with an adult in the room, and the report button is found and discussed before anything happens that might need it.

This household is a hypothetical example used throughout the course. It is not a real family and makes no claim about any product's results.

Before you move on

Checklist for Step 4