Google is now allowing your children to have their own Google account with a new Family Link app. You can create a Google Account for your kid that’s just like yours, and easily monitor what they do on their devices. Similar to other parental control apps, you can manage the apps your kids use, watch their screen time, set a bedtime on your kid’s device, and even remote lock it.
Family Link is available by invite only and is available for children under 13 years old. When logged into an Android device, it allow parents to manage the apps their kid can use, and approve or block the apps from the Google Play Store. On top of being to set a daily screen time limit on their device, Google will also show parents a detailed weekly and monthly report on how much time the kid spends on his or her favourite apps.
Other things you can do with Family Link include manage settings such as SafeSearch for Google Search, review child’s app permissions such as microphone, camera, location and contacts access, change the content filtering settings and turn search on or off in YouTube Kids app, and see the location of the kid’s device. Family Link allows a second family member to exercise the same controls you have over your child’s account.
Sadly though, Family Link is available in the U.S. only, and is only through an early-access program. Family Link is also only available on Android devices running on Android 7.0 Nougat and higher.
This is a great way for parents to slowly introduce gadgets to their children. Kids can make use of technology to learn more like learn coding through games, research for things on Google, watch educational contents on YouTube, and even message their parents. Let’s hope this test is successful and Google will open it out to more users around the world.
(Source: Google, Google Blog via: The Verge)
