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Authentication should be required to switch to the admin account on Quest 3

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I've created two supervised child accounts, I've added both accounts to our one headset (Quest 3). My account is the admin/parent supervisory account. When I go to the "switch accounts" interface, I can select either child account. But once I'm in that child account, I can just click "switch accounts" and become the other child or the admin without any prompt for passcode or any other kind of authentication.

This defeats the purpose of enabling parental controls on the child accounts if they can just switch to the admin account at will. I must be missing something obvious, but I can't figure out how to keep account switching limited for the non-privileged users.

I've enabled the headset passcode, but that's not the same thing. That just gives access to the headset. Once any user is admitted to the headset, they can become any of the accounts that are added to that headset including the admin. I keep reading about some kind of swipe pattern that was used on the Quest 2 but I haven't seen any menu items on Quest 3 that allude to a swipe pattern. I'm sure I'm missing something.

ItsVirtuallyJasonAnswer

Inspiring

I have somehow set it up where it not only asks for a passcode at bootup but also whenever you try to switch to the admin account from the child accounts. Just tested it to make sure I wasn't imagining that.

In Settings > Security > This Headset, I have the following settings:

Passcode: (I set one)

Unlock headset checked

Use saved passwords checked

Locked Apps checked

Edit: It asks for the admin passcode when coming out of sleep, but you can hit the back arrow and then switch to a non-admin account. I feel like the only annoyance left is that you can't have it require the passcode to get into the admin account, but not require the passcode when accessing child account on on bootup. The workaround is to always leave the headset on and sleep it (and leave it on the charger) when they are done, but that's not a 100% solution.

MetaStoreHelp

Community Manager

Hello, hello, pugsherpa! We completely agree with these valid points you're bringing up, and we definitely want to do our best to improve this newest parental control feature! When you get a chance, could you please share this feedback with our engineers right here? We always appreciate any ideas to enhance the VR experience for all users, across all ages!

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

pugsherpaAuthor

New Participant

I added the idea, as you suggested. I would call it a bug rather than an idea. There is no reason why Quest support can't open tickets on behalf of users to keep us from having to do busywork to highlight the bugs in your software. I'm a software engineer, I know how a professional service desk operates.

Implicit in your response is that the behavior I describe here actually exists and is actually a bug. I suppose that was my question. There have been prominent news releases by Meta trying to assure parents that you've fixed the issue of unsupervised children on the platform. But you haven't. If I were you, I'd get this bug bumped up as high as possible and addressed quickly before the word gets out.

It is possible that what I describe here isn't actually a bug or a security/safety issue. It's possible that I am actually missing something and that there is a way to keep kids from having unrestricted access in VR land. But if that were true, the answer to this question wouldn't have been for me to do busy work opening a service desk ticket - it would have been an explainer on how to enable authentication properly.

For posterity, here's the ticket I opened.

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Ideas/Authentication-should-be-required-to-switch-to-the-admin-account/idi-p/1117498

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sgmurphy2023

New Participant

I have the same issue. This is poorly designed.

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sgmurphy2023

New Participant

I have added my account as the admin account, and my child's account to my new Quest 3. There are parental controls on his account but there is nothing preventing him from switching to the admin account and bypassing all those controls. Why is there no password option on the admin account to prevent this from happening?

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Anonymous

Same issue here. The only reason we relented and purchased was because of the parental controls feature - please fix this asap or explain how to enable additional authentication. It’s not ok that children can switch back to admin acct which completely disables screen time limits and other controls.

J

JPH28

New Participant

Same Issue here. Kids can just bypass all parental controls (time limits, etc) by switching back to the admin account. I also don’t want to PIN lock my headset where I have to unlock it every time they get on. They should be able to just pick the kids account when they power on the quest and not have to login through the admin account and switch to the kids account each time.

The temporary work around is to put locks on each App and purchases on the admin account until they fix this issue. This doesn’t solve the time limit issue but at least they don’t have full access to everything.

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amongusman64

New Participant

Yeah we are having the same issue with a Quest 2. There is no option to create the swipe pattern I’ve found talked about on the internet to keep the child from just switching accounts. I’m so confused how Meta can leave such a glaring problem with the parental controls. There’s no point in even pretending that there are parental controls of the kid can just switch accounts willy nilly when they run out of time. Thanks Meta for making parent’s live 1 million times more difficult than they need to be. The only freaking way to control the kid’s access is to physically lock the stupid piece of crap up every time. Every other product has figured out that if you just require a password or PIN to switch accounts the kid can’t do it on their own. Do you even have any parents on your developer team? My goodness, what a blatant oversight.

ItsVirtuallyJasonAnswer

Inspiring

I have somehow set it up where it not only asks for a passcode at bootup but also whenever you try to switch to the admin account from the child accounts. Just tested it to make sure I wasn't imagining that.

In Settings > Security > This Headset, I have the following settings:

Passcode: (I set one)

Unlock headset checked

Use saved passwords checked

Locked Apps checked

Edit: It asks for the admin passcode when coming out of sleep, but you can hit the back arrow and then switch to a non-admin account. I feel like the only annoyance left is that you can't have it require the passcode to get into the admin account, but not require the passcode when accessing child account on on bootup. The workaround is to always leave the headset on and sleep it (and leave it on the charger) when they are done, but that's not a 100% solution.

A

Anonymous

Thank you!! This is super helpful as a stop gap measure. I’d like for my child to be able to log into his own account without me present so he can use it for the amount of time I enabled and within the bounds of the parental controls established. With this, I think I have to be present to i put my passcode when turned on before switching it to the child profile. But I’ll take that over being able to switch to the admin account with no parental controls for now! Appreciate it.

P

Prfxshn74

New Participant

I just don't understand why it forces us to actually log into the admin account first, every time they want to play. My wife didn't realize this the first few times she unlocked the headset for our kids and so she just typed in the code and gave them the headset. At that point they could just stay in the admin account and play without time limits or app restrictions, if we're not paying attention.

Why can't they just set it up so when you turn the headset on or wake it up, it just opens a screen to choose which account to login to? What they have now makes zero sense to me and I can't see any logical reason why the developers think it's a good setup.

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ocvirt

Participant

The main issues is that you can't restart the HMD without Admin login. I don't ask my works admin to login to my pc so that I can then pick my account. It is by far the stupidest design ever.

Password controls can be added but on power up, any user should be able to login to their account without admin.
Can;t beleive this is a year on and they haven't fixed it.

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TwerpyChicken

New Participant

Conscious this was posted in 2023 and seems a pretty massive flaw in design. Any update in 2025?

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evian3535

New Participant

Here's your 2025 update. I put a pattern code on my admin account, and yet tonight I hear my 7 year old talking to ppl. She was using an interactive VR game with voice chat and literally talking to and playing with strangers online. Things that I have disabled on her kids account. Turns out, despite my pattern lock, it doesn't ask for it when switching grom child account to parent acct. Since she couldn't "play with her friends" on her account, she decided to switch to mine and resume her chatting. She's now lost all VR privileges and only my 17 and 18 yr old may use it. Basically, this issue brought to Meta's attention 2 years ago, is still not fixed.

MetaStoreHelp

Community Manager

Thanks for letting us know about your experience. We're 100% keen to improve this parental control feature! If you get a chance, could you report this situation with our engineers here?

We're always really grateful when our users do this!

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

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davidsicherman

New Participant

This is so awful. Literally all junior programmer can create a profile that is password protected in any system. The only way this still exists is if Facebook wants it this way, and they do. Just terrible.

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