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

Children under the historic period of 13 can't create an unsupervised Google account for themselves. Instead, parents take to set upward the accounts for them using Family Link, which is supposed to give them a lot of control over what apps and games kids can get, how much screentime they're allowed, and which websites they tin can visit. Parents tin can even become a streamlined overview of their kids' app usage à la Digital Wellbeing. Simply what does it feel like to sit on the receiving end of the system? Needless to say, kids seem to hate the service, and they're vocal about 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 information technology really deserves the hate it's getting, so I locked myself into a kid account. Come across Inferior Vonau, my fictitious half-dozen-year-old, who used a child-safe Pixel 3 for a week.

Getting started

Setting up a child account is pretty straightforward. You lot can do it on a brand-new device or create a 2nd profile on a phone already in use with some other business relationship. I opted to mill reset my sometime Pixel iii and started anew. Google leads you lot through the mandatory parental consent and explains how the Family unit Link service works: Parents can see stats, enforce age restrictions, set app limits and filters, control which apps can exist installed, so on.

There are essentially 2 tiers of Family unit Link controls: Children nether 13 have much stricter limits past default and can't use many Google services, while accounts for kids older than 13 don't need to exist ready via Family Link. If parents want to, they can still connect older children's accounts and supervise them via the service, though teenagers can plow that off from their stop. (These are the conditions in the US and in many parts of Europe, but the exact ages and options may vary by state.) I wanted to see what things are like for kids under thirteen, which is why I made Junior half-dozen years quondam.

Since I had to get through my usual workday despite using a child business relationship, I lifted as many restrictions as I could: I allowed my vi-twelvemonth-sometime self to install apps without permission, including those that are 18+ (like Twitter and Telegram, you muddied minds!), and enabled sideloading back up. I could've lifted the mature sites filter, as well, simply I wanted to run across if it would interfere with my regular phone usage in any style.

YouTube

YouTube used to be the biggest pain point for any child under 13. Before February 2021, YouTube was but completely off-limits for kids. Google initially decided to do this in oder to show regulators and advertisers that it was serious near protecting children from inappropriate content, simply YouTube Kids, the extra app the company created that was supposed to condom-guard children, simply proved to be too limited. The limitations were becoming even more problematic when the pandemic struck, equally teachers weren't able to share educational videos with kids using supervised Android and Chrome OS devices.

Luckily, that'due south in the by. When setting up a kids account at present, y'all can select to give them access to "supervised experiences" on the regular YouTube app. There are iii tiers of protective layers, and Google is using a mixture of user input, car learning, and human review to determine which videos to include in each level. Features like livestreams, comments, alive chats, and whatever create options are unavailable for kids, and parents have full access to view and search history. You tin can read more about limits and features in our defended article here.

Unfortunately, YouTube Music even so isn't accessible for child 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 future, though the visitor hasn't shared when that will happen. The subscribers it has lost likely won't return, though.

During my initial exam earlier this year, losing the YouTube app was one of the biggest pain points, just dorsum so, I merely installed Firefox to admission the mobile site instead.

Third-political party apps

Now, proceed in mind that an app similar Firefox may work fine for me, but the 3rd-party browser doesn't respect the website restrictions you might desire to impose on your kid — that's the case for any third-party app not fabricated by Google, so be sure to screen which apps y'all allow on your child's phone. If you merely desire your kid to visit a specific subset of websites, you'll have to stick with Chrome and won't exist able to apply the browser workaround for YouTube and other blocked websites. If you were thinking, "Why not just utilize Chrome'southward incognito style," I'm pitiful to inform you that it's not available on children'southward accounts. At that place's a reason why sites like VideoLink notwithstanding accept to exist.

If you absolutely do need or want your kid to use an app that might non be 100% child-friendly like a third-party browser, yous might want to look into a service similar NextDNS. It'south a private D omain North ame lookup S ervice that acts like a customizable firewall for your home network or private devices, and yous can use it to block content you don't want your kid to be able to view. The problem is that DNS settings can exist changed on Android without parental blessing, and then information technology's not a foolproof technique. If y'all want to make sure that your kid can't pause out of the protected environment, calculation 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 press.

You could use Cloudflare'south family DNS instead, which automatically blocks developed content, if you adopt a less restrictive arroyo for your whole home network.

In-app purchases

In-app purchases are the bane of whatsoever family unit manager'south beingness. While about purchased apps are automatically shared with all Google Family members, that doesn't utilize for in-app purchases. That makes sense for some IAP items similar in-game currency, but when apps rely on Google'south payment system to unlock features or full variants, you'll run into problems. I couldn't apply 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 $3 app, but it's significantly worse in one case you become to more expensive IAPs or if you have several kids.

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

The developers were kind enough to offer promotion codes worth most $66 per business relationship to become around the IAP sharing block, and so it would seem like they successfully managed to flim-flam the arbitrary limitation. But here's the kicker: When Artem tried to redeem the codes via his kids' accounts, he got an fault, telling him that merely family managers tin can redeem codes. That would be him, the person who already purchased the IAPs in question. Other family managers have been reporting similar bug, so it's not an edge case barely anyone runs into.

And every bit you can tell from the screenshot beneath, children likewise aren't allowed to redeem regular gift cards, so don't even think nearly gifting them some Play Store credit for games on Christmas.

Nosotros're going to have to point to Apple tree for an example of how information technology should be washed. In 2020, the company announced that it would let families to share in-app purchases, provided developers requite their permission. Information technology seems like the best of both worlds: Developers make up one's mind which IAPs can be shared on a case-by-case footing, making it possible to block sharing for in-game currencies and such. I tin can't recollect of a reason why Google wouldn't adopt a similar policy.

We reached out to Google multiple times, request the company if it plans to introduce a similar IAP sharing option and what it would currently suggest in cases like Artem's, but we haven't heard back earlier publishing.

Gaming

Kids existence kids, they're probably going to want to play a game or 2 on their phone or tablet. Simply Google won't get in easy for you to sync progress to the cloud. The visitor's all-encompassing tool for that, Play Games, isn't available for kids under 13. That ways you'll accept to hope that game developers have implemented their ain mechanisms for syncing, and if they don't, yous might be out of luck in one case it'southward time to upgrade your kids to a new phone or tablet.

The result barely affects me since I basically never play games on my phone, then I'll have to point to Artem'south feel once more. He reports that he had to sync game progress to his own Facebook account as a workaround for one particular game. That'due south idiotic, but at least it works in this instance.

If you're bang-up on sharing your Stadia games with your kids, you'll be happy to hear that you only need to set upwards your child's account and actuate Family Sharing in the Stadia settings. All of this can be done in the web interface on stadia.com.

Google logins in third-party apps

Ii apps I unremarkably sign into with my Google account.

A while ago, Google didn't allow children to sign in to third-party apps and services with their Google accounts, but that inverse in 2021. Past default, children take to ask their parents for approval when they desire to use their accounts to sign into apps and services, but at least information technology'southward at present possible to use this sign-in method in the first identify.

In the past, if you wanted to get your kid a service like Pushbullet that only relies on Google for authentication, you'd be out of luck. Almost services offer their own logins these days, but people often run into one or 2 oddballs that don't.

Google apps and devices

While the YouTube woes might mostly be solved, there are still a lot of limitations to run into with other Google apps. Past default, at that place'south a child-prophylactic filter that blocks certain websites in Chrome and Search, merely that wasn't a trouble for me during my experiment. Kids additionally can't apply incognito mode at all, neither in Chrome nor in the Google app (commonly accessible by borer your account avatar -> use without an account). They also tin't access the Observe feed — there'south simply a blank page with the Google logo on the leftmost home screen. I wonder why the screen isn't disabled by default right after setup.

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

Kids also don't have access to a whole slew of apps in add-on to the ones mentioned earlier: Google Pay, Stance Rewards, Google News, and Google Fit. They also can't visit the Google Store website, and Google Duo has some restrictions where kids can only exist reached past contacts saved to their account. At that place might be even more restrictions, only these are the ones I've encounter. With some of these apps, you could contend that Google wants to protect children from unsuitable content, just then I don't quite become why I was able to use Google Podcasts on my child business relationship and could play content marked as explicit.

Most annoyingly, children aren't allowed to add together secondary Google accounts to their phone other than Instruction accounts. That means I could neither access my personal nor my work e-mail — though that might be a problem specific to someone who isn't actually a kid. (If an developed needs to borrow a kid'southward telephone for a few days, they could just create a second user in system settings where they could sign in with their Google accounts.)

Article of clothing Os is some other problem for locked down accounts — kids but can't install the Wearable Bone app on their phones, which is necessary to gear up and connect a Clothing Bone sentinel. Limiting Wear Os devices to proper Google accounts seems similar an arbitrary decision that doesn't do much to protect children from anything. It's particularly weird when you lot consider that Google and Nest Domicile devices work with kids accounts without issues. And these accept the potential to expose kids to unwanted content, as i of our commenters beneath told u.s.a. whose iii-yr-old 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 effectually some of these issues. My bank has an NFC payment system of its own, and I turned to Firefox for the other forbidden apps and services again. Simply remember that I was merely able to install Firefox because I gave myself the permission — if yous want to accept a fool-proof mode to prevent kids from visiting certain websites, you lot can't let them install Firefox.

At to the lowest degree kids can sign up for beta releases on the Play Store — no limitation at all in that location.

Development

Sometimes you might want to sideload apps on your kids' devices, and I'm happy to report that that'south possible on Android phones and tablets. Yous can also activate programmer settings for your kids' phones if you want to tweak some settings. Both of these options can be found in the Family Link app under device settings. Keep in heed that activating developer settings could also let your child to turn off Family Link supervision. And even if you let apps from unknown sources, rest at ease — kids even so can't install the collection of forbidden Google apps from APK Mirror.

Chromebooks

If you get your kid a Chromebook, you'll see similar, if non worse, restrictions. Similar on Android, children aren't immune to employ incognito mode, and parents tin manage which websites kids can visit. Chrome will also block as many sexually explicit and fierce sites as possible.

To a higher place: Firefox on a Chromebook ain't exactly pretty. Below: Something like Vivaldi is the better choice here.

Chromebooks don't run whatever browser other than Chrome out of the box, but thanks to Android app back up, I could install Firefox and employ it to admission forbidden services and other Google accounts. I quickly switched to Vivaldi because of better scaling and a proper tabbed interface, though. Again, parental website restrictions don't employ to 3rd-political party browsers, so if y'all want to avoid giving your child access to all of the internet, apply these with caution.

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

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

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

At least Google recently improved the Family Link setup process, streamlining everything nearly it.

I didn't have much administration to do while supervising myself, but many parents who do have a few complaints. A Twitter user shared that time limits use to all of a kid's devices, so the five-hour allowance on a Chromebook bought for remote learning also extends to the telephone. Some other parent shares that bonus time is granted in the grade of hard limit instead of one that but counts active usage time, so even when you want to grant more than fourth dimension for homework or something, you might be confronted with an unintuitive UX mostly aimed at postponing bedtime.

Google recently added the option to always allow certain apps, which is an comeback. But you withal tin can't group apps to exist "allowed at all times" when you impose daily limits, which would make granular controls much easier.

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

But despite my relatively svelte experience with Family Link, at that place are yet some egregious issues with the service that absolutely need to be addressed, regardless of how much you want to protect your children online. At that place's no reason why in-app purchases shouldn't exist shareable with other family members, specially since bought apps are available to everyone. Then at that place are the convoluted YouTube restrictions, particularly when it comes to YouTube Music. Its predecessor, Play Music, used to exist available to all ages, so the sudden shift is arbitrary and probably made many families switch to the competition.

(By all means, restricting certain videos for children makes perfect sense, only the current approach is leaning too far to the restrictive terminate and feels similar a band-aid solution for a likewise-long-ignored problem — that topic is enough material for another article, though.)

But that's not wherethe negative Play Store reviews come from. When you scroll through the Family Link for children & teens list, y'all'll see many children who seem to suffer from overly decision-making parents. Family Link can exist used until kids are xviii, and many reviews announced to come up from teenagers over 13. They complain almost their parents imposing strict bedtime limits and app limits. Teenagers older than thirteen can technically stop supervision at any time, simply they first need to know that that's a possibility andthey all the same need to deal with their parents, who will exist notified when they endeavour to remove them as supervisors.

As someone who doesn't have kids (however), I think a tool like Family Link has to be used carefully and in cooperation with children. Only the fact that parents even have the pick to completely lock down a 17-year-old'southward phone seems horrible to me — at that historic period, I wouldn't be comfy at all having someone come across everything I do on my phone or computer.

Google has done a lot to make Family unit Link better over the last yr or ii, but information technology'south clear that at that place's still room for updates that would brand the service much less frustrating. The company absolutely needs to ready IAP sharing, and I wouldn't mind if information technology dialed dorsum some of the all-encompassing control options over older teenagers.

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

The article 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

Google unveils its free personal tier for legacy G Suite users ahead of a new June deadline

Read Next

About The Author

Manuel Vonau (1672 Manufactures Published)

Manuel is Android Constabulary'southward Europe Editor, based in Berlin, Deutschland. He showtime started writing for the publication in 2019, just has been an Android enthusiast always since he picked up the HTC One Southward and later the Nexus 4.

More From Manuel Vonau