Screen Time Limits Easily Bypassed

H00AH · Apr 7, 2019

My 13 year old son has found a way to bypass the screen time limits on his Xbox One.

The steps to do so are as follows.

1. Restart Xbox One.

2. Upon restart go into "Network Settings" and select "Go Offline"

3. Log in with guest account. (This step works even through I've created a guest ket and unchecked "Let people download and make new accounts" because the Xbox is in offline mode and my family settings are not being applied).

4. Go back into network settings and go back online.

The net result is that my son is able to completely bypass the time limits on his Xbox One and go onto Xbox Live.

Apparently this has been a bug for quite some time and Microsoft has chosen not to fix it. If they don't resolve this soon I'm going to post these instructions all over the internet and every kid is going to know how to bypass these controls hopefully forcing
Microsoft to finally do something about it.

Sincerely yours

Very Angry Parent.

:)

XBF Amber M

Hey there,

We will be locking this older thread due to it being revived by a new post. If the issue is
on going, we recommend creating a new thread
detailing the issue at hand and any troubleshooting steps (if any) you’ve tried so far. We will be more than happy to answer any questions.

Thank you!

XBF George L

Hello H00AH!

I know this situation must be frustrating. We're here to help! I would recommend you switch the accounts Sign in preferences from the parental account. Switching the child accounts settings so that the account is not set up to Instant sign in and set up
with the "Lock it down" option instead. This would require him entering the child accounts password in order to sign in and that can only be performed online. Also by turning off the Instant Sign in feature his account would not be able to be signed into while
offline without the password as well. That would stop the guest account from being able to log in. Hope this helps!

Change your sign-in preferences on your Xbox One console (You must follow these steps but from the Family tab in your Account Settings
under the child account whose settings need to be edited.)

In addition, getting a "fix" for that type of situation is a very good suggestion. I would recommend going to
Xbox Ideas
and submitting that suggestion for review there. If others think it's a worthy idea as well, then they'll likely pick up on it for voting at a later time. Thanks again!

gbuzz1216

You could just get rid of the xbox, but I think that will destroy your son's heart

MattyMidway

Have you double checked that the screen time settings are set for the correct times for your local timezone? Also, double check that you have set screen times for both the PC and Xbox features. If the device is online and has the correct time set, he shouldn't
be able to bypass it. I double checked this with my sons access and I couldn't get around the screen time block.

Jon O Bristol

Good question, but my account is not set to auto login, so he can't be using it to bypass the screen time limits.

Screen Time Limits Easily Bypassed