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Many of our kids have smart devices today or sometimes have access to our own (parents’) devices which they use for games, watching videos on YouTube or even movies on VOD platforms like Netflix, Showmax, ViuSasa and the likes.
First, allow me to say that I am against adults sharing devices with children. Simply because it is difficult to filter inappropriate content on an adult’s phone…and I have heard of cases where children unintentionally came across adult content on a parent’s phone.
I have two kids, both six years old, and they all have their own devices. One tool that has helped me with them is Google’s Family link. Now when you have children with their own devices, there are a number of things you want to have control over.
Firstly, appropriate content. You want to have control over what applications they have on their phones, what those applications do and if they are appropriate for their age. You also want to block their access to sites that may have harmful content, including pornography.
Secondly, you want to control the amount of time that’s spent on these devices. Smartphones have been found by studies to be very addictive -even to adults. Imagine what the effect of this may be on children. In that case, you want to control when your children can access the devices and for how long they access them.
Family Link by Google is a tool that has enabled me to have considerable control over what my children do with their devices, when they access the devices and how much time they spend on the devices.
The application which is available for free on Play Store allows you to restrict App downloads. Before your child can download any application, you will receive a notification allowing you to review and approve or reject the said download request. You can manually accept the request on your minor’s phone by inputting your special password or remotely through the notification that you will receive on your device.
To use Family Link, you will first need to do a factory reset on your child’s device and set it up as if it was a new device. For Android-based devices, it will ask you if the phone belongs to a minor. This prompt will come when you input your email address as the account the new device is linked to…It will however allow you to create another email account for your child.
Once that is done, and you have fully set up the phone, you will need to get the Family Link app on your mobile phone (not on the child’s).
The app allows you to set phone use limits, and you can customize this for each child. For instance, my kids can only spend two-and-a-half hours every weekday on their devices. On weekends they get five hours. Further, I have set their downtime between 8.00 PM and 7.00 AM on school nights.
This means that after 8.00 PM, the device locks and becomes unusable except for phone calls or messaging. This is essential so that they are able to contact us in case of emergency or any other need. The devices also lock when the daily time allocations are spent.
Further, the app allows me to see how much time is spent on each app. This can help you understand what your child is interested in but it can also allow you to limit time spent on specific apps or even block access to specific applications as you deem fit.
When it comes to content restrictions, the device will automatically block sites that Google identifies as adult sites (PornHub and the likes)…but you may find that the sort of filters Google have are not 100% fool-proof. There could be a few sites that are not yet in their system as adult sites and you can manually input the sites and your kids will be blocked from accessing them.
This does not only apply to adult sites…you may want to restrict access to specific websites for various reasons that you as a parent deem valid.
You can also do more things like see the battery levels on your child’s devices or even ring the device from the app in case you have lost it somewhere in the house. It will ring even if it was on silent mode.
Lastly, the app can not read your child’s messages or chats and cannot 100% replace your input as a parent when it comes to monitoring how your child uses the internet. Parental guidance is still as important, this app just makes your work a little easier.
Kindly note that you can also not use this app for spying on adults. It is meant to be used to protect children.
