Steam App Review

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What is Steam?

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Steam is the world’s largest PC video game platform and digital store. It’s owned by the company Valve and functions as a place to buy and download games. There's also elements of social media related to specific games.

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Steam hosts tens of thousands of games, from child-friendly titles to extremely mature ones. Many of those titles are "indie" games. These are games that are often made by a small group, or even one person. Passion-project games that can be sold on the platform are common. It's a great place for smaller developers to post their games, get feedback, and make money.

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Some games are free, some cost money, there's lots of sales, and many exclusive titles.

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Oftentimes, games are judged by how well they do on Steam. If your child plays games on a computer, they probably use Steam or know about it.

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How Does Steam Work?

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Users create an account, build a profile, add friends, and play games online with others. The official minimum age to create an account is 13, but nothing about the platform is specifically designed for children.

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After creating a free account, a user can buy and download games, play online, and engage in social and community features (friends, private messaging, group chats, forums with posts and comments.

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There's even an entire Steam Market that allows people to buy, sell, and trade in game items from different games in one central marketplace. Kids don't often spend much time here, but some adults treat it like a secondary stock market mixed with eBay, all related to in-game cosmetics. It might sound silly, but some extremely rare and desired items can sell for thousands of dollars on the Steam Marketplace.

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What Do Parents Need to Know About Steam?

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Steam has Direct Messaging

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Steam automatically enables private messages, friend requests, and game invites.

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Steam Community Forums Are Often Unfiltered

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Every game has a public discussion board. These are not kid-moderated spaces.

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These forums can contin profanity, harassment, adult conversations, and trolling (bullying) culture.

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Steam Trading and Scams

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As mentioned earlier, Steam has an active digital economy. Which means there are plenty of scammers trying to get items worth real money from kids.

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Account theft is also extremely common on Steam.

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Steam has Mature Games

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Every kind of game is on Steam. The worst ones, and the best ones. With developers being able to list their own games here, there are plenty of risks. Sexual, violent, horror, and mature games are easy to find.

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Because it’s a storefront, a child can view game pages that include violent imagery, horror content, or sexual themes. Even if they never purchase the game, previews and trailers often still appear.

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How to Make Steam Safer:

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Regardless of the app, three actions mitigate the risks we’ve shared. We teach these actions in our parent presentations:

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1. Require approval for all app downloads.
2. Follow the 7-Day Rule
3. Enable in-app controls and settings

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We explain each of them briefly below. If you’ve already set up approvals for downloads and have used the app, please skip to the In-App Controls & Settings.

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Require Approval for App Downloads

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You can control app stores by requiring permission for apps to be downloaded. This is ensures your child doesn’t have access to an app without your knowledge. Here are the steps (for Apple and Android users):

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For Apple Devices:

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To require permission to download an app, you’ll need to set up Screen Time and Family Sharing (Apple’s Parental Controls). We explain this process step-by-step in our Complete iOS Guide (click here).  

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Once Screen Time and Family Sharing are established, here’s how to require permission to download apps on an Apple device:

1. Go to your Settings app.
2. Select your Family.
3. Select the person you want to apply this setting to.
4. Scroll down to “Ask to Buy” and enable.

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For Android Devices:

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You’ll have to use Family Link (Android’s parental controls) to ensure you retain control over what apps are downloaded. We explain this process step-by-step in our Android Guide (click here).

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Once Family Link is established, here’s how to require permission to download apps on an Android device:

1. Go to the Family Link App
2. Select the person you want to apply this setting to.
3. Select “Google Play Store”
4. Select “Purchases & download approval” and set it to “All Content.”

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Follow the 7-Day Rule

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This is our tried-and-true method of determining whether a specific app is safe for your specific child.

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Before you let your child use it, download the app and use it for 7 days.

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Create an account with your child’s age and gender and use it for 7 days. Play through a few levels, review the ads, see if anyone can chat with you, and poke around like a curious child.

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After a week, ask yourself, “Do I want my child to experience what I did?”  Even if you decide to allow them to download the app, now you have a basis for curious conversations about the app when you check in.

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Enable In-App Controls & Settings

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Steam actually has some very good parental controls called Steam Family View.

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‍This lets parents lock the store, restrict the library (which is where owned / downloaded games go), block community features, prevent messaging, and restrict purchasing.

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How to Set Up Family View on Steam:

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1. Open Steam
2. Click Steam (top left corner)
3. Click Settings
4. Select Family
5. Click Family View
6. Choose Only games I approve
7. Create a PIN code (don't share with your child!)

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Without this step, Steam is fully open.

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Disabling Direct Messages on Steam:

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Inside Family View, uncheck friends, chat, community content, and user generated content.

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Lock Purchases on Steam:

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Be sure to enable passwords for purchases, remove saved payment methods, and turn off Steam Wallet auto-reload (automatically adds funds to the Steam account).

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This prevents surprise charges and prevents scam purchases in case someone hacks your child's account.

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Make the Steam Account Private:

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1. Click profile name
2. Edit Profile
3. Privacy Settings
4. Set Game details and Friends list to Private

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Bottom Line: Is Steam Safe for Kids?

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It can be, but it requires a lot of attention and a good amount of set up before using.

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We like the Family View parental controls.

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Age 13+ feels right for Steam.

What if I have more questions? How can I stay up to date?

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Two actions you can take!

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1. Subscribe to our tech trends newsletter, the PYE Download. About every 3 weeks, we’ll share what’s new, what the PYE team is up to, and a message from Chris.
2. Ask your questions in our private parent community called The Table! It’s not another Facebook group. No ads, no algorithms, no asterisks. Just honest, critical conversations and deep learning! For parents who want to “go slow” together. Become a member today!

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