How to set up parental control on Android

Do you know what content your children see when you take a mobile phone? Are you completely sure that the websites, videos, photos and apps to which they have access are appropriate for them? If the answer is “no”, then I’m very interested in this: how apply the parental control on Android phones the smallest of the house. There is a way “official”, developed by the own Google, and even though it is not the only one, yes it is more than enough for the general purpose that we bring with us between the hands.

What is the parental control?

The parental control allows you to prevent children from having access to contents that are not appropriate (or that we do not consider appropriate for them. Also prevents them to purchase products online accidentally or intentionally. The suitability of these systems is very clear, since it allows parents to have at all times a record of the content that is accessing the child when they use their devices.

When there are children in the home the use of this type of applications is much more than recommended, especially when we start to count with their own devices. Since you can’t be on top of them 24 hours a day, yes you can put up barriers that prevent you from reaching the contents that are not intended for them. That said, let’s see what we have at our disposal.

How to put parental control on mobile

The way “official” set this control in Android is called Family Link, and is designed so that parents can remote control the phone of the children. Parents will be able to use it on phones running Android 4.4 or higher, while the phone that will be monitored will need to have Android 7.0 or higher.

This control system works through the Google account, where the parent linked to the account that the child may have configured in your mobile phone, and where the data block will be reflected in the devices that use that account. You can also set up usage times and know how much of that time spent in each application, among other things. In the first place, we downloaded the app in our phone.

Download

Nothing more to start using Family Link, the phone will ask us if we are one of the parents or the child. We will show that we are one of the guardians:

Configuration of the phone of a guardian in Family Link

Then we asked if our son has a Google account (if you don’t have to create one):

Configuration of the account to be monitored

When we have created, we will configure it together with him (this process would also have to take him out if we’d responded that yes you have a Google account). The application will give us a configuration code, for now, reserve for later:

Configuration code Family Link

Now we will go to the phone you want to monitor and download a different app, call Google Family Link for children and adolescents.

Download

When open, this will be what we see:

Family Link for children and adolescents

We click Start and we arrive at the following screen, where we have to choose the account that we are going to monitor:

Selection of the account to be monitored

Then we will arrive to the screen dondre we will have to enter the code Family Link he gave us on our phone (we do):

Introduction to the code of configuration

The next thing we have to do is ask the child to enter the password of your account, for that Family Link to verify your identity:

Verification of the identity of the child

Now we will have to do is click on Join for the account of our son to become part of the family group. In the phone of the guardian, a warning message will appear, showing us the features that we want to monitor, after which it will wait until the device to be monitored is a group of devices of our Family Link. Finally, in the device of the child is going to ask us if we admit the oversight. Click on Allow:

Granting permissions to the supervision of the phone

From here begins the monitoring. In the first place we give a name to the device of the child if they so wish, and will then be able to choose what applications we want to keep them installed and what to remove (all this configuration is done in the terminal of the child):

Review of the applications installed

When we have finished, we will receive a notice that informs us of which devices are connected and that one of the accounts) supervises the other. We now return to the phone guardian. We will see the following screen:

Configuration of filters parentañes

We chose the option that is most convenient for you. With the default controls is usually sufficient, but you can always tread more carefully customizing the parental controls. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with Family Link to everything possible before you start to put up barriers.