Google Family Link

Google Family Link is a parental control application developed by Google It allows us to establish certain basic rules so that our children can make a correct use of the Internet. With a very simple, Google-style interface, we can check our children's activity, manage the applications they can use, control screen time and even lock the device remotely. In addition, we will also be able to know where they are.

This is an application developed for Android devices In addition, it is designed to control your children's devices more than to control their use what they do to your device when you leave it. In other words, if your child already has their own mobile, Google Family Link can help you control their use of the device. We wanted to take a look at the application and tell you how it works and how to use it.

Compatible Devices

The first thing we need to know is on which device we can use Google Family Link. The version for children and adolescents requires an Android device with version 7.0 (Nougat) or later versions As for the version for parents, will be able to use the app on devices running Android 4.4 or later In addition, is also compatible with iPhones running iOS 9 or later On the other hand, Family Link also works on Chromebooks.

It should be clear that we have a version of the application for parents and another for children In fact, in the Play Store they are completely different . When you search for Google Family Link you will see that there is a version with the tag "for children and adolescents" and another with the ending "for fathers, mothers and guardians". Hence the compatibilities with the operating system are different.

It is also important to know that it is an application that, at the moment, is developed for Android devices Although the application for parents is available for iOS, the kids app is not. Also, the control application is only available for iPhone, so if we want to use it on an iPad we will have to do it with the wrong interface.

How to configure Google Family Link if our child has his own mobile or tablet

Once you download the parent app on our device and the kid app on our child's, we launch the parent app. After a brief explanation of what you can do, click on Get started and select our Google account.

First it asks us who is going to use the device. We select Parents and we get a message telling us that we must have the device to be supervised nearby. Click on Next and it asks us if we want to be a family administrator. Click on Done and on the next screen it will ask us if our child has a Google account.

Here we make a stop along the way to explain above the conditions of Google.According to the rules of the search engine company, a user can be an administrator of their Google account if they are over 14 years old (in Spain, in other countries it is from the age of 13). If our son is under 14 years old, but has a mobile phone, we will have to have created a Google account for him to be able to use it. Unless we have put ours on it, which is not recommended.

So, going back to setup, we're going to say Yes. By giving this answer, you're telling us that we should have our child's device nearby and that setup will take about 10 minutes. Click Next and a new screen tells us to open the “Google Family Link for children and adolescents” application and enter the configuration code that you are providing

Once the code has been entered on our son's device, the name of the account we want to supervise will appear on our mobile.If it is correct, click on Yes. Back on our son's device we will have to enter the password of his Google account and Allow supervision We will also have to activate a option called “Profile Manager”. And finally, we must select the applications that we want our child to be able to use.

Once done, when we return to our mobile, it will ask us how we want to customize the content filter settings. Among the options we have the option to customize them or use the default ones. And that's it, we already have the basic configuration of the application done

On the main screen of Google Family Link we can see the configuration of the controls, check the location of the device, check what applications you have used during the day, configure the screen time by setting a daily limit and even an hour sleep and view recently installed apps.

From the Configuration section we can apply the different filters that interest us. For example, It is possible to apply a filter for purchases on Google Play Also filters for browsing with Chrome, search filters and even YouTube, although the latter must be be applied from the child's device.

How to configure Google Family Link if our child does not have their own mobile or tablet

The first case is ideal for those who have adolescent children or are old enough to have their own mobile. But what about younger children? The usual thing is to give them an old tablet or mobile so that when they are at home they can see their drawings. In these cases, these children will not have a Google account, but will use ours to access applications such as YouTube Kids or similar.

In these cases, Google Family Link prompts us to create a Google account for our children. We may create a supervised account for a user under the age of 14. Once created, we identify ourselves with this new account on our child's device.

When our child turns 14 you will be able to convert your Google account to a standard account When this happens, the child will be able to choose if he wants to Manage your own Google account or let your parent or guardian continue to do so. If the child chooses to take over their account, but the parent wants to remain informed of their activity, the Family Link monitoring tools can be reactivated from the Family Link (child/teen) app on their device.