Google’s New Parent Control Feature Blocks Cell Phone Use at School
By Movieguide® Contributor
Google just unveiled a new collection of parental controls that will help parents keep their children from spending too much time on their phones.
“Family Link provides tools that respect families’ individual choices with technology, helping them create healthy, positive digital habits,” a description of the search engine’s family app reads. “With easy‑to‑use tools, you can understand how your child is spending time on their device, share location, manage privacy settings, and find the right balance for your family.”
A press release from Google shares that Family Link’s new features are “more intuitive” for parents to use. The app gives parents a rundown on what apps kids are using, as well as how long they’re on it, and the Screen Time tab lets parents limit how long their kids can be on their phones. They also introduced a feature called School Time.
“School Time can help reduce distractions, by scheduling limited phone functionality and silenced notifications during school hours,” the release reads. “If there is a vacation or planned day off, or even just planned lunches and recess, parents can easily adjust the settings and set a ‘Break’ to fit their children’s schedules.”
READ MORE: WILL THIS STATE BAN PHONES IN SCHOOLS?
Google continued, “Parents can choose the apps that are silenced and restricted, and learn which apps their child uses while in School time or outside of it. We understand there are times when certain apps are useful for studying, which is why parents can choose a set of allowed apps, and select which are allowed during School time or in other selected modes.”
PC Mag reported on Family Link, praising it for encouraging parents to have conversations with their children about internet usage.
“When you enable parental controls on your child’s device, Google lists everything its settings can and cannot do, and asks you to talk to your child to establish trust,” the outlet wrote. “This is excellent advice echoed by experts who have told us that parental control software is most effective when combined with cooperation from the child being monitored. We like that Google includes conversation prompts on the parent app’s dashboard to encourage adults to talk to their children about online interactions.”
Many other apps and websites are adding more robust parental controls as we learn more about the effects smartphone usage has on young people, including TikTok and Facebook Messenger.
READ MORE: FACEBOOK MESSENGER TO ADD PARENTAL CONTROLS
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