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Steam has officially overhauled its family sharing system which faced difficulties when others on the plan were loading up games, in favor of the new \u2018Steam Families.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Introduced via a <\/span>blog post on the Steam website<\/span><\/a> yesterday (Mar. 18) the video game service said they were \u2018excited\u2019 to announce the update which is now available in the Steam Beta Client.<\/span><\/p>\n Steam Families<\/span><\/a> is a collection of new and existing family-related features, replacing both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View.<\/span><\/p>\n It provides a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play. Up to six family members can be included in one plan, with management access available from <\/span>Steam Client, a mobile device, or web browser<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n Members of a family will be classified as either adult or child, with the adult having management access.<\/span><\/p>\n In the previous system, there were limits on how many people could play games from one library. This has now been removed, as has the need for two systems.<\/span><\/p>\n To give Steam\u2019s family debut a try, you\u2019ll need to be in the beta program. You can do this by visiting Settings > Interface > Client Beta Participants and selecting \u2018Steam Family Beta.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n For parents who are monitoring children\u2019s online activity, this new update is set to make it a whole lot easier to manage as new features open up ease of access.<\/span><\/p>\n The family sharing feature brings in the library which is accessible via the left column on the home screen once you\u2019ve signed in.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyone in a \u2018family\u2019 gains automatic access to the shareable games library, meaning users can play a game from other family member\u2019s collections \u2013 even if they are online playing another game.<\/span><\/p>\n When you are playing a game from your family library, you can create your own saved games and earn individual Steam achievements.<\/span><\/p>\n New to Steam is the major upgrade on parental controls, with the tool focusing on this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Parents can set limits on what and when children play games on Steam and you can control what games your children have access to and monitor their activity. This is even possible via your mobile phone when you\u2019re away from your at-home device.<\/span><\/p>\n Parental control features let adults:<\/span><\/p>\n With this addition to the family service, adults no longer have to spend time manually purchasing games for their children. Instead, to streamline this process, Steam Families has a payment option where a child account can request an in-family adult to pay for their shopping cart.<\/span><\/p>\n The adult then has the choice to approve and pay for the purchase from their mobile device or email or to decline the request.<\/span><\/p>\n Featured Image: Via Steam News<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nNew features in Steam Families<\/span><\/h2>\n
Family Sharing<\/span><\/h3>\n
Parental Controls<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Child Purchase Requests\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n