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  • The article has been updated to be in line with Google'southward latest rules when it comes to Family Link and child accounts.

Children under the age of thirteen can't create an unsupervised Google account for themselves. Instead, parents have to set up upwards the accounts for them using Family unit Link, which is supposed to give them a lot of control over what apps and games kids tin go, how much screentime they're allowed, and which websites they tin visit. Parents tin can even get a streamlined overview of their kids' app usage à la Digital Wellbeing. Merely what does information technology feel like to sit down on the receiving end of the system? Needless to say, kids seem to detest the service, and they're vocal nearly it; the Family Link for kids app has a staggering boilerplate rating of i.4 stars on the Play Store.

I wanted to see what exactly is up with Family Link and if it really deserves the hate information technology's getting, so I locked myself into a child business relationship. Encounter Junior Vonau, my fictitious half-dozen-yr-one-time, who used a child-safe Pixel iii for a calendar week.

Getting started

Setting up a kid business relationship is pretty straightforward. You tin exercise it on a make-new device or create a second contour on a phone already in utilize with another account. I opted to factory reset my old Pixel three and started anew. Google leads you through the mandatory parental consent and explains how the Family Link service works: Parents can run into stats, enforce age restrictions, set app limits and filters, control which apps tin can exist installed, and then on.

There are essentially 2 tiers of Family Link controls: Children under 13 accept much stricter limits past default and can't use many Google services, while accounts for kids older than 13 don't need to be fix via Family Link. If parents want to, they can still connect older children's accounts and supervise them via the service, though teenagers can turn that off from their end. (These are the weather in the US and in many parts of Europe, but the exact ages and options may vary by country.) I wanted to encounter what things are similar for kids nether 13, which is why I made Junior vi years old.

Since I had to get through my usual workday despite using a child account, I lifted as many restrictions every bit I could: I immune my half-dozen-year-onetime self to install apps without permission, including those that are 18+ (similar Twitter and Telegram, you lot dirty minds!), and enabled sideloading support. I could've lifted the mature sites filter, too, but I wanted to see if information technology would interfere with my regular phone usage in any way.

YouTube

YouTube used to exist the biggest hurting point for any kid under xiii. Before February 2021, YouTube was simply completely off-limits for kids. Google initially decided to practise this in oder to show regulators and advertisers that it was serious near protecting children from inappropriate content, but YouTube Kids, the extra app the visitor created that was supposed to safe-guard children, only proved to be too limited. The limitations were becoming fifty-fifty more problematic when the pandemic struck, as teachers weren't able to share educational videos with kids using supervised Android and Chrome Os devices.

Luckily, that'south in the past. When setting up a kids business relationship now, you can select to give them admission to "supervised experiences" on the regular YouTube app. In that location are three tiers of protective layers, and Google is using a mixture of user input, motorcar learning, and human review to decide which videos to include in each level. Features similar livestreams, comments, live chats, and any create options are unavailable for kids, and parents have full access to view and search history. You can read more about limits and features in our dedicated commodity here.

Unfortunately, YouTube Music still isn't accessible for kid accounts. That means that people who have previously relied on Google Play Music to provide their whole family with music were essentially forced to switch to another service like Spotify, which is available for kids. At least Google has promised to bring YouTube Music to kids in the time to come, though the visitor hasn't shared when that volition happen. The subscribers information technology has lost probable won't return, though.

During my initial examination earlier this year, losing the YouTube app was one of the biggest pain points, but back then, I but installed Firefox to access the mobile site instead.

Tertiary-party apps

At present, keep in heed that an app similar Firefox may piece of work fine for me, only the third-political party browser doesn't respect the website restrictions you might want to impose on your kid — that's the instance for any third-party app non made past Google, so be sure to screen which apps you permit on your child'southward phone. If you only desire your child to visit a specific subset of websites, you'll have to stick with Chrome and won't be able to use the browser workaround for YouTube and other blocked websites. If you were thinking, "Why not just utilise Chrome's incognito manner," I'thousand sad to inform you lot that it's not available on children's accounts. There's a reason why sites like VideoLink nevertheless have to exist.

If yous absolutely do need or want your kid to use an app that might not be 100% kid-friendly similar a tertiary-party browser, you might desire to look into a service like NextDNS. Information technology'due south a private D omain N ame lookup S ervice that acts like a customizable firewall for your home network or private devices, and you tin can apply information technology to block content y'all don't want your child to be able to view. The problem is that DNS settings can be changed on Android without parental approving, then information technology'southward non a foolproof technique. If you desire to make certain that your child can't break out of the protected environment, adding a secondary router with NextDNS enabled and its own Wi-Fi network might be your all-time bet, though that introduces new problems for your kids with things like Chromecast and network-based printing.

You lot could use Cloudflare's family DNS instead, which automatically blocks adult content, if you prefer a less restrictive approach for your whole dwelling house network.

In-app purchases

In-app purchases are the blight of any family manager's existence. While most purchased apps are automatically shared with all Google Family members, that doesn't use for in-app purchases. That makes sense for some IAP items similar in-game currency, just when apps rely on Google's payment system to unlock features or full variants, you lot'll run into bug. I couldn't employ my preferred Reddit client Sync without ads because I had opted for the in-app purchase instead of the standalone Pro version. That's no biggie for a $iii app, simply it's significantly worse one time you get to more expensive IAPs or if you have several kids.

Android Police force founder Artem Russakovskii ran into that issue when he wanted to set up new tablets for his kids. He got a couple of learning apps from Originator Inc., a visitor specialized in education and amusement apps for kids. It offers the full versions of its services as in-app purchases, which Artem got with his ain account — every bit we learned, that means these aren't available for his kids.

The developers were kind enough to offer promotion codes worth about $66 per account to become effectually the IAP sharing cake, so it would seem like they successfully managed to trick the arbitrary limitation. Simply here's the kicker: When Artem tried to redeem the codes via his kids' accounts, he got an error, telling him that just family managers can redeem codes. That would be him, the person who already purchased the IAPs in question. Other family managers have been reporting like problems, so information technology's not an edge example barely anyone runs into.

And as you tin can tell from the screenshot below, children as well aren't allowed to redeem regular gift cards, so don't even call back about gifting them some Play Store credit for games on Christmas.

Nosotros're going to have to point to Apple for an example of how information technology should be washed. In 2020, the company appear that it would permit families to share in-app purchases, provided developers give their permission. Information technology seems like the best of both worlds: Developers decide which IAPs tin can exist shared on a case-past-example ground, making it possible to block sharing for in-game currencies and such. I tin't think of a reason why Google wouldn't adopt a similar policy.

We reached out to Google multiple times, asking the company if information technology plans to introduce a similar IAP sharing selection and what it would currently suggest in cases like Artem'southward, only we haven't heard dorsum before publishing.

Gaming

Kids beingness kids, they're probably going to want to play a game or ii on their telephone or tablet. But Google won't go far easy for y'all to sync progress to the cloud. The visitor's all-encompassing tool for that, Play Games, isn't available for kids nether 13. That ways you'll have to hope that game developers have implemented their own mechanisms for syncing, and if they don't, you might be out of luck once information technology'south time to upgrade your kids to a new phone or tablet.

The issue barely affects me since I basically never play games on my phone, so I'll have to signal to Artem's experience again. He reports that he had to sync game progress to his own Facebook business relationship as a workaround for ane detail game. That's idiotic, but at least it works in this case.

If you're keen on sharing your Stadia games with your kids, you'll be happy to hear that you just need to gear up up your child's business relationship and activate Family Sharing in the Stadia settings. All of this tin be washed in the spider web interface on stadia.com.

Google logins in 3rd-party apps

2 apps I normally sign into with my Google account.

A while ago, Google didn't allow children to sign in to tertiary-party apps and services with their Google accounts, just that changed in 2021. By default, children have to inquire their parents for approval when they desire to employ their accounts to sign into apps and services, but at to the lowest degree it'south now possible to apply this sign-in method in the first identify.

In the by, if you wanted to get your kid a service similar Pushbullet that just relies on Google for authentication, you'd be out of luck. About services offer their own logins these days, but people oft come across one or ii oddballs that don't.

Google apps and devices

While the YouTube woes might by and large be solved, in that location are still a lot of limitations to run into with other Google apps. Past default, at that place'south a child-safe filter that blocks certain websites in Chrome and Search, but that wasn't a problem for me during my experiment. Kids additionally can't utilize incognito mode at all, neither in Chrome nor in the Google app (usually accessible by tapping your account avatar -> use without an account). They as well can't access the Discover feed — there'south just a blank page with the Google logo on the leftmost home screen. I wonder why the screen isn't disabled past default correct after setup.

Left: Where's the Discover feed?  Centre: You can striking Install, but it won't install. Right: Playing podcasts marked as explicit on a child account?

Kids besides don't have access to a whole slew of apps in add-on to the ones mentioned earlier: Google Pay, Opinion Rewards, Google News, and Google Fit. They also tin't visit the Google Store website, and Google Duo has some restrictions where kids can simply exist reached by contacts saved to their business relationship. In that location might exist even more restrictions, only these are the ones I've run into. With some of these apps, y'all could argue that Google wants to protect children from unsuitable content, but then I don't quite get why I was able to use Google Podcasts on my kid account and could play content marked as explicit.

Most annoyingly, children aren't allowed to add secondary Google accounts to their phone other than Education accounts. That means I could neither access my personal nor my piece of work email — though that might be a problem specific to someone who isn't actually a kid. (If an adult needs to borrow a kid'due south phone for a few days, they could merely create a 2d user in system settings where they could sign in with their Google accounts.)

Wearable OS is some other problem for locked down accounts — kids just can't install the Wear OS app on their phones, which is necessary to set up and connect a Wearable OS watch. Limiting Wear OS devices to proper Google accounts seems like an arbitrary decision that doesn't do much to protect children from anything. Information technology's especially weird when you consider that Google and Nest Home devices work with kids accounts without issues. And these take the potential to expose kids to unwanted content, as one of our commenters below told united states of america whose three-year-onetime managed to overcome the YouTube restrictions by using Google Image Search on a Nest Hub (that kid is going places for certain!).

I could work around some of these bug. My banking company has an NFC payment system of its own, and I turned to Firefox for the other forbidden apps and services once more. But call back that I was but able to install Firefox because I gave myself the permission — if you lot want to take a fool-proof manner to prevent kids from visiting certain websites, you lot can't let them install Firefox.

At least kids tin can sign upward for beta releases on the Play Store — no limitation at all there.

Development

Sometimes you might desire to sideload apps on your kids' devices, and I'thou happy to study that that's possible on Android phones and tablets. You can also activate developer settings for your kids' phones if you want to tweak some settings. Both of these options tin can be found in the Family Link app under device settings. Keep in mind that activating developer settings could as well allow your child to plow off Family Link supervision. And even if you allow apps from unknown sources, balance at ease — kids notwithstanding can't install the collection of forbidden Google apps from APK Mirror.

Chromebooks

If you get your kid a Chromebook, yous'll run into like, if not worse, restrictions. Like on Android, children aren't allowed to use incognito fashion, and parents can manage which websites kids can visit. Chrome will also block as many sexually explicit and violent sites as possible.

Higher up: Firefox on a Chromebook ain't exactly pretty. Beneath: Something like Vivaldi is the improve choice hither.

Chromebooks don't run any browser other than Chrome out of the box, but thanks to Android app support, I could install Firefox and employ it to access forbidden services and other Google accounts. I apace switched to Vivaldi because of better scaling and a proper tabbed interface, though. Again, parental website restrictions don't apply to third-political party browsers, then if you want to avoid giving your child access to all of the net, use these with caution.

Family Link settings for Chromebooks (left) and Android phones or tablets (correct).

If yous demand to sideload an app for a child nether 13 on a Chromebook, you lot're out of luck, though. To sideload apps on Chromebooks, you need to temporarily stop supervision on a kid'southward account in the Family Link app, which tin only be done for or by teenagers. You also can't install Linux apps on a kid's Chromebook.

Adding browser extensions is possible, but not actually comfy. In contrast to Android app installations, which can be canonical remotely, kids have to bring their concrete device to their parents who then have to enter their own Google business relationship passwords to allow an add-on. That'south still a big comeback over the way things were — children used to be completely unable to install extensions.

At least Google recently improved the Family unit Link setup procedure, streamlining everything virtually information technology.

I didn't accept much assistants to practise while supervising myself, only many parents who do have a few complaints. A Twitter user shared that fourth dimension limits apply to all of a child'south devices, so the v-hour allowance on a Chromebook bought for remote learning also extends to the phone. Another parent shares that bonus time is granted in the form of hard limit instead of ane that merely counts active usage time, and so fifty-fifty when y'all want to grant more than time for homework or something, you might be confronted with an unintuitive UX mostly aimed at postponing bedtime.

Google recently added the option to e'er let certain apps, which is an comeback. Just you lot notwithstanding can't grouping apps to be "allowed at all times" when yous impose daily limits, which would brand granular controls much easier.

I ran into quite a few limitations during my week with a child account, but many of them tin be mitigated with workarounds. I'd imagine that the story might be unlike for families who really want to use some of Family Link's restrictions to protect their children, but overall, many obstacles tin can be overcome if needed.

Simply despite my relatively graceful feel with Family Link, at that place are still some egregious issues with the service that absolutely need to be addressed, regardless of how much you lot want to protect your children online. In that location's no reason why in-app purchases shouldn't exist shareable with other family members, especially since bought apps are bachelor to anybody. And so there are the convoluted YouTube restrictions, particularly when it comes to YouTube Music. Its predecessor, Play Music, used to be available to all ages, and so the sudden shift is capricious and probably fabricated many families switch to the competition.

(Past all ways, restricting sure videos for children makes perfect sense, simply the current approach is leaning likewise far to the restrictive end and feels like a rough-and-tumble solution for a also-long-ignored problem — that topic is plenty cloth for another article, though.)

Only that'south not wherethe negative Play Store reviews come from. When you scroll through the Family Link for children & teens list, you'll encounter many children who seem to endure from overly controlling parents. Family Link can be used until kids are 18, and many reviews appear to come from teenagers over 13. They mutter nigh their parents imposing strict bedtime limits and app limits. Teenagers older than 13 tin technically stop supervision at any time, but they first need to know that that's a possibility andthey still need to bargain with their parents, who volition be notified when they effort to remove them as supervisors.

Every bit someone who doesn't have kids (still), I think a tool like Family unit Link has to be used carefully and in cooperation with children. But the fact that parents fifty-fifty have the option to completely lock down a 17-year-old's telephone seems horrible to me — at that historic period, I wouldn't be comfortable at all having someone see everything I do on my phone or computer.

Google has done a lot to brand Family Link better over the last year or two, merely it'due south clear that in that location'due south notwithstanding room for updates that would make the service much less frustrating. The company absolutely needs to fix IAP sharing, and I wouldn't mind if information technology dialed back some of the extensive control options over older teenagers.

UPDATE: 2021/09/05 7:56am PDT Past MANUEL VONAU

The commodity has been updated to be in line with Google's latest rules when it comes to Family Link and child accounts.

Thank you: Paddy O'Reilly, Manbearpig, Jeff

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Manuel Vonau (1600 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's not writing articles for Android Law, he'due south probably out and about equally a videographer.

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