Google Family Link 4+

Parental control for your kids

Google

    • Free

Screenshots

Description

Google Family Link is a parental controls app that helps you keep your family safer online. We know that every family's relationship with technology is unique, so we've designed tools like Family Link that give you the flexibility to choose the right balance for your family and help them create healthy digital habits. Family Link's easy-to-use tools allow you to understand how your child is spending time on their device, see their device location, manage privacy settings and more.


With Family Link, you can:

Establish digital ground rules
• Set screen-time limits – Family Link lets you set downtime for your child's device and time limits for apps, so that you can help them find a healthy balance.
• Guide them to age-appropriate content – approve or block apps that your child wants to download. Family Link also allows you to choose the right YouTube experience for your child: a supervised experience on YouTube or YouTube Kids.

Manage and secure your child's account
• Protect their privacy – permissions management in Family Link allows you to make meaningful choices about your child's data. View and manage permissions for websites and extensions accessed through Chrome, as well as apps downloaded on your child's device.
• Secure their account – Family Link gives you access to manage your child's account and data settings. As a parent, you can help change or reset your child's password if they forget it, edit their personal information or even delete their account if you feel that it's necessary.

Stay connected on the go
• See where they are – it's helpful to be able to find your family when they're on the go. With Family Link, you can locate your children on one map, as long as they're carrying their device.
• Get notifications and alerts – Family Link delivers critical notifications, including when your child arrives at or leaves a certain location. You can also ring devices and view the device's remaining battery life.


Important information

• Family Link's tools vary depending on your child's device. See a list of compatible devices at https://families.google/familylink/device-compatibility/
• While Family Link helps you manage your child's purchases and downloads from Google Play, they won't need approval to install app updates (including updates that expand permissions), apps that you have previously approved or apps that have been shared in Family Library. In addition, purchase approvals will only apply when your child makes a purchase through Google Play's billing system, and will not apply to purchases made through alternative billing systems. Parents should regularly review their child's installed apps and app permissions in Family Link.
• You should carefully review the apps on your child's supervised device, and disable those that you don't want them to use. Note that you may not be able to disable some pre-installed apps such as Play, Google, etc.
• To see the location of your child or teen's device, the device must be turned on, recently active and connected to the Internet through data or Wi-Fi.
• Family Link parental controls are only available for supervised Google Accounts. With supervised Google Accounts, children get access to Google products like Search, Chrome and Gmail, and parents can set up basic digital ground rules to supervise them.
• While Family Link provides tools to manage your child's online experience and keep them safer online, it does not make the Internet safe. Family Link cannot determine the content on the Internet, but it can give parents the opportunity to make decisions about how their child spends time on their device and determine what path to online safety looks best for your family.

What’s New

Version 2.42.29138

Several stability improvements and bug fixes.

Ratings and Reviews

4.5 out of 5
29.8K Ratings

29.8K Ratings

OzzyF ,

Brilliant for mums who are learning to let go.

I just got both my tween sons phones as they will be walking home from school. This just adds peace of mind that I can see where they are. But I can also see what they download and can control their usage so the negative effects of having a mobile are more limited. It just adds a layer of protection while letting them gain their independence. If you are a mum you know how hard it can be to loosen the apron strings. It’s important for their development that they start having some freedom but in your heart you always worry about their safety and well-being. This app just helps me feel I have put some safeguards in place while a learn to get used to the idea of letting them out into the wild world.

K1MAR0 ,

Amazing app

Came across this app by accident when I was setting up my child’s first “adult” tablet, and it is the best app for parental controls I have ever used, and what’s better is it’s absolutely free to use and easy to set up. Hands down beats any built in parental controls on the numerous devices I have tried in the past. Only thing I’d like to see in the app is break times...you can set a daily limit, but at weekends when my child has a longer limit an automatic break time would be ideal, rather than me having to lock the tablet from my phone. If that were to happen then it would be 5 stars.

5pik* ,

Very disappointing waste of time

Multiple Problems - I have the latest version of the app but can’t complete the account creation process. The only thing I’ve succeeded in doing is giving Google my children’s birthdays and my credit card details.
I cannot complete the credit card process. Buttons do not always respond and the app seems to crash in the middle of collecting personal credit card data - which is very worrying!! I have visited the help section but cannot find any way to contact tech support.
The disclaimer says the account I am trying to create for my child will be exactly the same as an adult account - “not designed for children”. What’s the point?
Cannot add an existing account. Why not?
Looking at other reviews, Apparently it doesn’t work on Chromebooks.
The app requires the child’s full birthdate details - why? Surely they just need year and month.

Summary: I think the point of this app is for Google to collect more personalised information in order to target advertising to children.

From a parent’s perspective, when compared to Apple’s brilliant Family features, this Google app is a poorly designed waste of time, developed by a legal and marketing team that has no idea what parents need. I wasted 45 minutes on this rubbish!

App Privacy

The developer, Google, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

  • Financial Info
  • Location
  • Contact Info
  • Contacts
  • User Content
  • Identifiers
  • Usage Data
  • Diagnostics
  • Other Data

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Search History
  • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More

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