How to Manage Privacy in Steam Family Sharing

Steam Family Sharing allows you to share your gaming library with family members, but you might not want to share every game. Here’s a guide on how to hide specific games from your family members to keep certain content private or just manage what games your family can access.

Enabling Steam Families

First, make sure you have Steam Families enabled:

1. Enable Beta Participation (if still necessary): Go to Steam > Settings > Interface > Client Beta Participation and select “Steam Families Beta”.
2. Wait for Official Release: If the feature is out of Beta by the time you’re setting this up, you can skip the beta participation step.

Preparing Your Library

Before you add anyone to your Steam Families, it’s crucial to manage your library:

1. Review Your Library: Go through your games and decide which ones you want to keep private.
2. Hide Specific Games: Right-click on the game in your library, choose Manage > Mark as Private. This ensures the game is hidden from family sharing but still visible to you.

Setting Up Family Sharing

Once your library is curated:

1. Add Family Members as Friends: Use Steam friend codes to add family members to your Steam friends list.
2. Invite to Steam Families: Go to Steam > Settings > Family > Manage your Steam Family. Use the invitation button next to your friend’s name to add them as a family member.

Configuring Access Levels

You can designate family members as either ADULT or CHILD:

• Child Accounts: These accounts will have Steam parental controls applied.
• Adult Accounts: These will have standard access unless you restrict individual games.

Testing Your Settings

It’s wise to test your settings before officially sharing your library:

1. Set Up a Dummy Account: Create a secondary Steam account and add it to your family sharing.
2. Check Game Visibility: Log into the dummy account and ensure that the games you marked as private are indeed hidden.
3. Adjust As Necessary: If any games are still visible, go back to your main account and adjust the settings.

Ongoing Management

• New Purchases: When buying new games, you can choose to mark them as private immediately from your cart. Look for the dropdown menu labeled “For my account” and select “For my account: private.”
• Periodic Reviews: Regularly review your library and privacy settings to ensure they meet your current needs, especially if new games are added or if Steam updates its privacy features.

Utilizing Advanced Filtering

For large libraries, use advanced filtering to quickly find games to hide:

1. Access Filtering Options: Click the button with three horizontal lines next to the search bar in your library.
2. Set Store Tags: Enter tags like “Violent” or “NSFW” in the “Store Tags” section to filter games by these criteria.

Final Thoughts

Steam Family Sharing is a fantastic tool for sharing your gaming library, but maintaining privacy is crucial, especially when it comes to family access. By carefully managing which games are visible and testing your settings, you can ensure a customized and secure sharing experience.