Android Family Link was released last year to some success. The features are good enough and being able to change kid’s settings from your own phone is super helpful. There were some downsides, however. One of which was that it was geared mostly towards younger kids. That has changed today as google announces features for Teenagers in the FamilyLink app.
Android FamilyLink allows you to:
- Approve your child’s downloads and purchases from Google Play and limit the visibility of content in the Google Play Store based on maturity ratings
- Manage settings such as SafeSearch for Google Search
- Review your child’s app permissions on Android, such as microphone, camera, location, and contacts access
- Change the content filtering setting and turn search on or off in the YouTube Kids app
- Reset your child’s Google Account password
- Set screen time limits on your child’s Android devices
- See the location of your child’s signed-in and active Android devices
- Manage the activity settings for your child’s Google Account
- Allow a second family member to exercise most of the same controls you have over your child’s account.
The features for teens adds the ability for your teen to disable the FamilyLink supervision setting. You will be notified if they disable it but the option is still there.
Chromebooks
Schools all over the country are giving their students Chromebooks. The parental control options for Chromebook have been severely lacking for several months since Google disabled the Supervised User feature. The reason they ended support for Supervised User is to make room for FamilyLink and it’s finally here.
FamilyLink will soon give you all the same controls on Chromebook as you have on mobile devices. Right now you can only change account settings and content filters. Soon there will be screen time and app store management as well.
What Parents Should Know
FamilyLink is a good parental control solution and it’s only getting better. They’ve added some good features and options for your older kids is also a good step. Issues I’ve had with FamilyLink in the past are the weak filter (currently only as good as Google’s Safesearch) and issues with backwards compatibility. They still recommend your kid’s device run Android version 7 or higher while some devices running Android 5 or 6 may work with FamilyLink.
I like what FamilyLink has to offer by way of screen time management and app store controls. A major problem parents have with Android is the ability to download apps outside of the app store. They control what their kids see on the Google Play Store but children can download things from outside the app store sometimes. Many parents don’t know how this is done and how to stop it so it poses a major problem.
The ability for teenagers to disable FamilyLink is kind of moot since it notifies parents. That makes me wonder why it’s put there in the first place. Perhaps to give teens the illusion of control or freedom since that’s something the adolescent desires more than anything. If you use FamilyLink for your teenager be sure to let them know you’ll find out if they disable it. The filter is kind of weak and there is no way to monitor messaging or get alerts if negative content has been viewed. I recommend a good accountability software for this. Get something that will work for phones and Chromebook. It’s critical that you know what your kids and teenagers have seen online and what they are doing. This allows you to have conversations with them about their decisions and the dangers and risks involved.
