Google Family Link Helped Me Lock Down 99% Of My Child's Phone With Ease — Here's How

The pressure to get my son a phone arrived sooner than I was expecting. He was barely halfway through Year 6 (that's 5th Grade for any American readers), and his friends started taking their newly acquired smartphones on trips to the park, when previously their hands would be full of footballs and frisbees. I felt like I had missed a parent’s meeting where it was decided that this was the life we wanted for our kids.

The realization that I was well behind the curve in this area kickstarted a lot of late-night Googling, where I spent hours researching the best phone for my son. I initially thought I’d just get him a dumb phone. At least then I could pretty much guarantee protecting him from harmful content. But this wouldn’t have allowed me to track his location, and for safety reasons, that was a non-negotiable for me.

Then I discovered child-friendly phones like the British-designed Sayph or the more well-known HMD Fuse. These types of phones enable parents to restrict app use, create a whitelist of contacts, and even create a school mode. They also often have additional filters for blocking inappropriate content. I liked the idea, but the handset options were limited.

It was only then that I stumbled across the Google Family Link app, which enables parents and their children to create healthy, positive digital habits. Through simple, user-friendly tools, you can do almost everything that a dedicated child-friendly phone can with Family Link, and if you use it to the fullest, you can create a safe online environment for your child.

Google Family Link works across Android, ChromeOS, and iOS devices — the child's phone, however, must be an Android device, since Google doesn't offer the 'kids' version of the Family Link app for iOS; only the 'parent' version.

I’m not a helicopter parent, honest!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes to know where their child is. The advent of GPS has not only made it possible to track your child but also made it feel slightly creepy to do so. The fact that you know where they are without them knowing where you are feels slightly odd. But then again, they are your children, and you’ve been tasked with keeping them safe.

I like to know whether my son has arrived at school, if he’s still at the park, or which friend's house he’s decided to go to. As much as I want to know where he is, I don’t want him feeling that he’s got to be constantly on his phone texting me updates. That would go against my desire to keep him as screen-free as possible for as long as possible.

This is where Google Family Link becomes your ally. With it, you can not only keep an eye on their location but also create specific places named Family Places. Whenever your child enters or leaves these locations, the parent receives a notification. With that, you can keep a loose eye on them without following their little avatar on Google Maps as they cycle to school. Full disclaimer: yes, I have done that as well.

"No, I’m not giving you access to that app”

Given this was going to be my son’s first ever experience of a smartphone, I was keen to only give him the very basics. I didn’t want to provide access to anything that was remotely addictive for fear that he wouldn’t be able to put the phone down. I was surprised how easy it was to achieve this with Google Family Link.

All I had to do was navigate to the ‘Block and limit apps’ tab to see a full list of available apps on his phone. From there, I was able to select an individual app and either block it completely or set a daily time limit. The interface is incredibly well laid out, such that even the least tech-confident parent could manage to navigate it.

I also wanted some level of control over his contacts. Okay, now I really am starting to sound like a control freak. With Family Link, you can not only set ground rules for incoming and outgoing calls and texts but also require any contact to be approved before they can be contacted.

The text interactions my child might have then got me thinking about issues he might run into with group chats. I’m sure we’ve all read the stories of bullying and inappropriate sharing of private photos, and I didn’t want my son to be exposed to this.

I was therefore grateful to see that Google offers sensitive content warnings, which add a layer of protection for Google Messages that blurs incoming nude photos and discourages the sending of nude photos. I can’t comment on its effectiveness, although it’s nice to know it’s there. It’s worth noting that many child-specific phones offer greater levels of nudity protection, if this is a concern of yours.

Locking down websites because the world is a scary place

My son needs ongoing access to some select websites to be able to do his homework, but beyond this, I was able to control which sites he was able to visit when signed in to Chrome. The app enables you to activate a filter that blocks explicit sites, although even Google admits in the app that “No filter is perfect.”

I therefore decided to only allow approved sites. I have to say, this has been the only element of my Google Family Link experience that has been a pain. I was hoping to just copy and paste URLs into the app and let Google take care of the rest. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Because a lot of sites have subdomains, especially Microsoft websites, I found that unless I entered all the specific URLs, Family Link wasn’t clever enough to be able to implement what I needed it to.

I eventually got it working and was glad that my son was able to request access to specific websites simply by typing them into Chrome and selecting ‘Request Access’. That took care of any that I missed. The request pops up on my phone, and as soon as I approve it, he can access the site straight away.

A safety platform that evolves

One of the best things about Google Family Link is how easy it is to add restrictions as well as remove them. As my child gets older, I’ll want to give him more freedoms, and with the app, it's simple and straightforward for me to do so.

With child-friendly phones, they always have the risk of being 'childish' and will therefore quickly become outdated for your child. With Google Family Link, it’s possible to make any phone child-safe, whether they have the latest Samsung Galaxy or a generations-old Google Pixel.

I'm glad, then, that rather than buying some expensive new child-specific phone, I settled on an app that allows my son to use a 'normal-looking' Android smartphone that I can control remotely. Google Family Link isn't perfect, but it's the easiest and most feature-packed solution to child safety I've come across so far.