Why it matters to you
Google’s Family Link makes managing kids’ phone usage easier for parents.
Worried about what your kids are up to on the internet? Google’s made an app for that. Family Link, a new, free service for Android, lets parents manage the content of their kids’ devices.
Family Link, which is launching in limited beta on March 15 ahead of a broader launch this year, lets kids access Google services like Gmail, Maps, Chrome, and Photos. But it ties their devices to their parents’ devices, and parents get notifications about virtually everything their kids do.
More: Access denied: Our favorite, free parental control software
If they try to download an app or visit a site, parents receive a notification that they can approve or deny. They get detailed analytics of what apps their kids are using, and even a rundown of which services they spend time with.
Once parents download the Family Link app to the child’s phone and their respective smartphones, they can allow or block access to any app on the child’s device, or limit the amount of time they can spend with a specific service. Ratings and information from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and Google’s own internal review board help to indicate the age-appropriateness of apps’ content (Maps is rated “G,” for example).
Family Link includes broader device controls, too, like a feature that limits kids to a certain amount of screen time each day. Parents can set “blackout periods” during which kids won’t be able to access their devices (think dinner or bedtime), and a Lock Devices Now option instantly locks a child’s device.
More: Kids: Your illicit Chrome and Chromebook use may soon come to an end
Some Google apps offer more granular controls than others. Chrome, for example, allows three different levels of access: Unfiltered, SafeSearch (which filters websites and pages Google’s filters deem “inappropriate”), and restricted (where the child is only allowed to visit a list of sites the parent specifies). And most of Google services are available to kids.
YouTube is the exception to the rule. Family Link directs kids to YouTube Kids, Google’s child-friendly version of YouTube with built-in age controls and restrictions.
Family Link isn’t Google’s first attempt at kid-friendly controls in Android. In Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, it introduced Restricted Profiles, which locked down potentially harmful features. But it was largely an all-or-nothing affair — kids were prevented from using Gmail, for instance, and couldn’t back up photos to Google’s cloud services.
More: Facebook users in France posting photos of their kids could face fines, jail time
Targeting services at the 13-and-under crowd is a difficult business. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act restricts the kinds of information companies can collect from users 12 and under, and requires parental consent before children can share personal information such as their location, gender, or image of themselves.
Google thinks Family Link could be part of the solution.
“There’s always a concern if [kids] are going to stumble into some dark alley on the internet,” Amar Gandhi, Google’s director of product management told Mashable. “This is a problem we think Google can solve. A lot of the people who worked on this project are parents. We never think tech is a substitute for parenting, but we do think technology can help.”