Microsoft Family Account: Create, Join and Manage

A Microsoft family account is a free family group at account.microsoft.com/family. An adult organizer adds children and other adults, then manages screen time, app and game limits, content filters and activity reports. A child needs a Microsoft account; a local Windows account is not part of the group.

This guide covers the whole lifecycle: create the group, add a child, accept the invitation, add a second parent, remove a member, and fix the usual problems. Microsoft changes labels from time to time; the order of the steps stays the same.

What a family group is (and is not)

• It is free. You do not need Microsoft 365, a paid subscription or a credit card.
• It is a group of Microsoft accounts. The organizer is an adult with management permissions; members can be adults or children.
• It is the switch for Family Safety. Screen time, app and game limits, content filters and activity reports apply to children in the group.
• It does not manage local Windows accounts. A purely local account is outside the family group. See the local-account guide if you do not want Microsoft accounts.

Create a family group

1. Sign in at account.microsoft.com/family with the parent's Microsoft account.
2. Choose Create a family group if you do not have one yet. If you were invited to a group, accept the invitation instead.
3. Check the organizer. The account that creates the group is the organizer. It should be the parent's account, not the child's.

Add a child

1. Choose Add a family member → Add a child.
2. Create a new email for the child or add an existing one. A new address is fine; it does not have to be used for personal mail.
3. Fill in the child's details. The date of birth matters: Microsoft uses it for age-related settings.
4. Send the invitation. The child must accept it while signed in with their own account.
5. Sign in on the child's PC. Use the child's Microsoft account in Windows and keep it a Standard user.

Accept the invitation on the child's device

1. Sign in with the child's Microsoft account.
2. Open the invitation email, or go to account.microsoft.com/family and accept the pending invitation.
3. On the child's Windows PC, sign in with the same account. Family Safety applies the rules after the device syncs.
4. If the invitation does not appear, check that you are signed in with the right account and that the organizer used the correct email address.

Add a second parent or organizer

A second adult can help manage the family. At family.microsoft.com choose Add a family member → Add an adult, enter the adult's email, and have them accept the invitation. The organizer can also give an adult organizer permissions, depending on the current Microsoft interface.

Manage limits and reports

• Screen time: a daily limit and a schedule for each device.
• Apps and games: per-app limits or blocks.
• Content filters: web and search filtering, mainly in Microsoft Edge.
• Activity reports: a weekly summary of screen time and app use.

For step-by-step instructions, see how to limit screen time on Windows 11. If a limit is set but does not apply, see the Family Safety troubleshooting guide.

Remove a member or leave the group

• An adult member can leave the family group from account.microsoft.com/family. The organizer can also remove an adult.
• A child is removed by the organizer. A child account normally cannot leave the group on its own; in some regions, a child may be able to leave after reaching the age of majority.
• Removing a child stops the family rules. The child's account remains, but it is no longer managed by your family group.
• Before removing, note the limits and reports you may need. Removal can reset the family relationship and the settings attached to it.

Common problems

The invitation does not arrive

Check the email address, the spam folder and whether the child already belongs to another family. The organizer can resend the invitation from the family page.

The child is signed in with the wrong account

On the child's PC, open Settings → Accounts → Your info and compare the email with the family group. A second Microsoft account or a local account is not covered by the rules.

Limits are set but do not apply

The child may be an administrator, the PC may be offline, or the policy may not have synced. Make the child a Standard user, connect the PC, and sign out and back in. The troubleshooting guide covers the rest.

The family page does not show the child

Refresh the page, sign out and back in, and check that the invitation was accepted. If the child is in another family, the other organizer must remove them first.

I want to use a local account instead

Family Safety does not manage local accounts. Use a standard local account and a third-party time limiter. See the shared family laptop guide for the combinations that work.

Privacy: what the organizer can see

Family Safety is a cloud service. Depending on the features you enable, the organizer can see screen time totals, app and game use, web activity in Edge and search activity. Calls and messages monitoring is not available on Windows. The child should know what is enabled; a visible agreement is easier to accept than a hidden report.

Questions

ScreenRhythm is our product. We describe Microsoft Family Safety honestly, including where it is the better fit. Microsoft changes its interface and regional rules; check the current Microsoft documentation if a screen looks different.