Why You Probably Need To Change Your Privacy Settings On PS5
One of the most important things to do after setting up a new device with online functionality is to adjust (or at least look at) your privacy settings. It's important for smartphones and pretty much essential for computers, but don't overlook your home gaming consoles, either.
Whether you're choosing how much or little you want to make yourself available to random strangers on the internet or setting up an account for a younger user, privacy settings are worth spending some time on. Otherwise, you could find yourself receiving unexpected messages from mistyped addresses, random trolling, or possibly someone who's really angry that you beat them in a versus match.
In a perfect world, people just wouldn't do two of those three things, but this isn't a perfect world, so prevention should be your first step in dealing with these sorts of problems. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to control who can contact you or even see you in the first place on your PlayStation 5.
How do I change my PS5 privacy settings?
Open the Settings menu for your PS5, then select Users and Accounts > Privacy > View and Customize Your Privacy Settings. Keep in mind that children will be able to use their family manager to choose a privacy profile for themselves, but they won't be able to change their profile once their account is created. A parent or guardian can adjust these settings for them later, however.
Once you're in Privacy Settings you have four different profile presets to choose from:
- Social and Open: Everyone can see your public profile information, and your friend requests and messages are open to everybody. Ideal if you don't have any privacy concerns and prefer more of a free-wheeling online social presence.
- Team Player: Anybody can see most of your public profile details, but chat requests are limited to friends and friends of friends. This is for those who want a little more control over who can reach out to them, but don't want to hide their account completely.
- Friend Focused: Limits profile viewing and chat requests to the users you're already friends with or add as friends. Probably the best choice if you prefer to interact online with the people you know and nobody else.
- Solo and Focused: Absolutely nobody — not even friends — can look at your profile or send you chat invites. Choose this one if you generally want to be left alone when using your console.
If none of these profiles fits your needs completely, you can also go in and manually adjust individual settings — like whether or not your account will appear in a search — to fine-tune it to your liking.