Google Family Link is designed to help parents have more control over their kids’ online activity by providing parental controls for phones and tablets. It’s easy to use, effective, and safe – so if you’re looking for ways to make parenting a little easier this app might work for you!
What is Google Family Link?
Google Family Link is a parental control app that allows you to have full control over your child’s device by creating a child account. Child accounts are a lot like adult accounts, but it gives you controls that allow you to set some strict ground rules, such as which apps your child is allowed to use, and for how long.
You can also set the bedtime on your child’s device, permit installations, and view your child’s location using the app.
My Google Family Link Review
Installing Google Family Link gives you full control over your child’s device. Starting from installation permissions to phone settings, you can modify, block, or allow access to any website or App. Additionally, you can set time limits for screen time.
Google Family Link Features:
- Control and manage the apps your child use
- Set daily screen time
- Set device bedtime
- Remotely control, lock, or unlock your child’s device
- Locate a missing device in the house by playing a sound
- Check your child’s location
- Set time limits for individual apps
- Check how much your children spend on their favorite applications and set time limits according to the weekly or monthly activity report of your child’s usage
- Control installation permissions
- Check all signed-in devices
Most importantly, your child cannot uninstall or remove the application from their device. You can be sure that the application cannot be removed or uninstalled without the parent’s permission.
This peace of mind you get from knowing your children are browsing the internet safely when you are not around is priceless. However, you need to keep in mind that even Google Family Link cannot fully protect your children from harmful content.
There are various apps that offer filtering services that parents can access through the Google Family Link application. This application gives you the ability to optimize your child’s Google Play account by setting an age limit so that your child can only see appropriate apps, movies, and books. You can also set the Google SafeSearch filter from Google Chrome settings.
Google enables parents to filter explicit music lyrics in Play Music. Once you’ve installed the Google Family Link account, all new applications will need authorization from the parent by entering their passwords on their device when they receive the notification to approve the installations.
What does Google Family Link require?
The most important requirement to have the application up and running on your child’s device is that both the parent and the child are in the same country, and both have their individual Google account.
How to set up Google Family Link
- The first step is to download the Google Family Link application on your mobile phone.
- Go to families.google.com, and create a child account, you can also do this through the application. Or use an existing child account they already have.
- On families.google.com, you will need to set up the family information, how many family members and devices you are supervising, most importantly, you need to set the setting to only give supervision rights to parents. Your children cannot change this in the future.
- The first step is to download the Google Family Link application on your mobile phone.
- Go to families.google.com, and create a child account, you can also do this through the application. Or use an existing child account they already have.
- On families.google.com, you will need to set up the family information, how many family members and devices you are supervising, most importantly, you need to set the setting to only give supervision rights to parents. Your children cannot change this in the future.
How To Set Up Family Link on Chromebook
The Google Family Link application allows you to manage your child’s activity on their Chromebook as well as their screen time. You can see the Chromebook device listed in the Family Link app once they sign into their devices, and you can control the time limits for their separate devices.
What Else Can Google Family Link Do for Parents?
Google Family Link is full of surprises and tricks to help you as a parent to rest assured knowing that your children are on the internet safely. Here are some of the most important tips and tricks offered by the app.
- You can set the applications your child is allowed to use within the time limit you’ve allowed on the screen time. Let’s say you do not want your child to spend too much time gaming or watching YouTube; you can now set a time limit for the application use or you can exclude the whole application from the screen time allowed apps.
- You can give your children some bonus screen time on the devices by simply choosing the section with the time limit options and setting the time limit when the device has locked, you can extend the screen time, or turn off the device.
- You can track your child’s location by checking the map on the application. This feature only works when your child’s device is connected to the internet, whether through mobile data or Wi-Fi. It also cannot work if your child’s device is in an area with bad reception, but once it’s connected to data or Wi-Fi, the location will reappear on the map.
- It’s quite annoying when you lose a phone inside the house and can’t locate exactly where it is. This application helps you locate the device outdoors and indoors, outdoors by showing you the location on the map, and indoors by playing a sound to locate the device.
In case your child’s phone was switched off and you cannot reach them, go ahead and check the battery level in the Family Link account by scrolling down to the device information section. If the device battery is zero percent, that is probably why you can’t reach them; once it’s been recharged, it’ll reappear on the app.
Final Verdict
Being a parent is a huge responsibility, having some applications like Google Family Link helps you make the job a bit easier as you can be sure that your child is securely browsing the internet. It is a great option for all concerned parents of kids or teens.
