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eggie1807
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

add stadia app to child account / blocked by 18 rating?

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Hi

I want let my 9-year-old play Fifa on our TV / Chromecast - using his own account.... afaik, that needs him to connect using the Stadia app...  

But: how are you supposed to install the Stadia app onto a phone using a Family child account? AFAICT, because Stadia is 18 rated, it cannot be installed. Ever.  That means: you cannot connect any child Stadia account to the TV :disappointed_face: 

(he can play via a session in a web browser of course, but that's not the point) 

My attempts: 

1. Tried to install Stadia App on his phone. I disabled all the age filters for him for Apps in Family and also in the Play Store on the phone itself - when I try to install any 18 rated app, i.e. Stadia (but also others), I get told "sorry, you are not old enough". (despite the age filters being off) When I try other apps e.g. Prime Video or Netflix, rated 16, I get a pop-up asking for a parents password...

2. I tried using my Stadia App on my phone and switching accounts: but when I try to login as my son, I get told that it is a Family controlled account and that it might lead to "stuff getting mixed up"

3. I try I tried downloading the stadia APK on his phone: Family blocks my son from installing untrusted apps. Maybe there is a way around that restriction?

4. I tried installing a second user on my phone: This works, but then I ran into the same restrictions as his own phone (not surprising, really) . 

Obvs I have looked at the other posts - plenty of annoyed people, but none of their solutions has worked for me so far. I am in Germany, and I wonder if this leads to an extra restriction? I assume it MUST be possible since others seem to have succeeded, but arrggghhhhhhh....... 

Maybe I am missing some small setting I need to alter, but this is crazy.  It really seems a bit pointless to have settings in the Family Link app to allow an 18 rated content if it is then silently blocked by other rules. And to have Stadia menu in Family Link to control the content, if you cant install Stadia! It also make little sense to me to rate the Stadia app as 18 in the first place - considering Prime and Netflix are 16. 

Does anyone have any good ideas on how I can fix this?

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Best Response
eggie1807
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Hi @RXShorty 

I've got it working.  

For any others with the same problem (which is the Play Store not allowing 18 rated apps like Stadia to be installed, even if the settings for the Childs Account in Family Link are set to allow it)...

The solution I used to avoid the age restriction in Play Store is 

  • download the Stadia APK from the Play Store, following these instructions: https://www.wikihow.com/Download-an-APK-File-from-the-Google-Play-Store 
  • use the https://families.google.com/ site to allow my sons account to Install Apps from Unknown Sources (option is located under the device that is going to be used,  not my sons account setting) (note - this option cannot be altered using the app my phone, AFAIK)
  • the device asked if I wanted to allow the browser to install app from unknown sources when I clicked the APK - without step 2 above the device refused to let me proceed previously. 

Once Stadia was installed, everything worked as expected. Initially, the Stadia app could not add itself to the ChromeCast - a message about not being on the same Wifi network - but after 7 or 8 attempts, it realised it is on the same network and allowed the connection). But now my son's account appears on the Stadia start-up screen next to mine. :slightly_smiling_face: 

Hope this helps some others!

(to respond to the idea of changing the birthdate of my son: I set him to 13 years old - the same behavior in the Play Store app on the phone - also tried setting him to over 18, but got told Families is only for under 18s).

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5 Replies
RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hello @eggie1807,

Setting up a family account for your child can be pretty difficult indeed.
Let's try to find out what went wrong.

If you login to https://families.google.com/ and open your childs account go to: Google Play --> Restrictions on apps and games --> Allow all
You should be able to install the Stadia app right now with your childs account.

I noticed you already setup your childs account on Stadia to play 18+ rated games so that should be good.
Are you using a Chromecast Ultra? :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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eggie1807
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

HI @RXShorty 

that's exactly the problem. I should be able to install the Stadia app with Allow All - but I get told I am not old enough. Just tried changing the setting from the familes.google.com site as you suggest - and same effect. Any other ideas?  

btw, I have now worked out how to allow APK installation from untrusted locations (setting can be changed from families.google.com) - so I was able to install Stadia from an APK - that seems to have worked, I connected using sons account, no complaints about no old enough... however: I have got an outdated version of the Stadia app APK (1.45.279195397)- it tells me that I have to update - so back I went to the Play Store, find Stadia, hit Update - and the message about not being old enough is back. 

I guess I need to find the very latest Stadia APK. Will do some googling on that when I get back. 

Not sure what type of Chromecast I have. But right now, that's not a part of my problem...   

eggie1807

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hiya @eggie1807,

In some Stadia documentation they state 13+ is a minimum age to play Stadia.
Maybe try changing the age of your kids account to a 13+ age to see if this works some how?

Trying to think how I solved this with my child account which was about the same age as yours (10 years). I added a few years so he was 13+.
After this things worked and set back his official age in the account. Bit of dirty workaround but if it works we know what the problem is.

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eggie1807
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Hi @RXShorty 

I've got it working.  

For any others with the same problem (which is the Play Store not allowing 18 rated apps like Stadia to be installed, even if the settings for the Childs Account in Family Link are set to allow it)...

The solution I used to avoid the age restriction in Play Store is 

  • download the Stadia APK from the Play Store, following these instructions: https://www.wikihow.com/Download-an-APK-File-from-the-Google-Play-Store 
  • use the https://families.google.com/ site to allow my sons account to Install Apps from Unknown Sources (option is located under the device that is going to be used,  not my sons account setting) (note - this option cannot be altered using the app my phone, AFAIK)
  • the device asked if I wanted to allow the browser to install app from unknown sources when I clicked the APK - without step 2 above the device refused to let me proceed previously. 

Once Stadia was installed, everything worked as expected. Initially, the Stadia app could not add itself to the ChromeCast - a message about not being on the same Wifi network - but after 7 or 8 attempts, it realised it is on the same network and allowed the connection). But now my son's account appears on the Stadia start-up screen next to mine. :slightly_smiling_face: 

Hope this helps some others!

(to respond to the idea of changing the birthdate of my son: I set him to 13 years old - the same behavior in the Play Store app on the phone - also tried setting him to over 18, but got told Families is only for under 18s).

1 Kudo
RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Thanks for sharing this solution @eggie1807 .

Could you share your issues with the Stadia feedback option? This way the Stadia team can maybe get this issue resolved for in the future. 

Again thanks for reporting back!

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