Google Family Link gave me control over most of my child’s phone

A TechRadar writer says Google Family Link made it easier to manage what their son could do on his first smartphone. The app offers parents controls for apps, contacts, websites and location, though the writer says some settings took effort to configure.

Family Link works across Android, ChromeOS and iOS, but a child’s phone must run Android. The writer used location alerts for named places, called Family Places, to learn when their son arrived or left without continuously tracking him on Google Maps.

Parents can block individual apps or set daily time limits. They can also set rules for calls and texts, and require approval before a contact can be reached. Google Messages offers sensitive content warnings that blur incoming nude photos and discourage sending them. The writer did not assess how effective those warnings are, and notes that some child-focused phones provide stronger nudity protection.

For web access, the writer chose to allow only approved sites rather than rely on a filter that blocks explicit content. They found that entering a site’s URL did not always cover its subdomains, so they had to add specific addresses. Their son could request access to sites they had missed, and the writer could approve requests from their phone. The article describes the setup as useful but acknowledges that managing website access was troublesome.