Google Family Link for Android: more control over your kids devices
Google Family Link is a new application for Android that gives you more control over the Android devices of your kids.
This reads a bit like parental controls, and it is to a degree. The main idea behind the app is to give parents control over various aspects of their children's devices. Among other things, it allows parents to set a bedtime for the device, monitor the on-screen time, and manage the apps that kids can use.
Before you get too excited, read about the requirements first. Family Link is only available to Android users fro the US. Also, parents need a Google Account and an Android device of their own, and the kids need an Android device running at least Android 6.1 on certain devices, or Android 7.0 The account for the kid is create through Family Link. Lastly, invites can be requested right now only.
Google Family Link
One of the main features of Family Link is that children may not install apps on the device on their own. They have to request the installation of the application first, and it is up to the parent to allow or deny it ultimately.
Depending on the parent's tech experience, it can be a good option to avoid that dangerous or problematic applications land on the kid's device.
Of course, this won't do anything good if parents have no clue about the apps and nod them all through.
The two remaining features are useful on their own. The first lets you set limits in regards to device usage. You may set device usage limits, and if usage crosses one of the thresholds, the device gets locked automatically and cannot be used anymore for the time being.
Google notes that parents may lock the device remotely, for instance when "it is time to play, study or sleep".
Last but not least, Family Link allows parents to keep an eye on the screen time of their children. It reveals how much time kids spend in apps, and offers weekly and monthly activity reports on that.
Closing Words
Google Family Link gives parents some control over their children's devices. The feature is limited to users from the US currently, and it seems also that Google runs it as a limited test run for eligible users as well as you need to request an invite to even test the app.
It seems likely that Google will make the app more widely available in the near future. It is too early to tell how well the protection works. Will it limit the creation of a second Google account on the device? (via Caschy)
Now You: What is your take on Google Family Link.
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?