How to Use Parental Controls in Your Google, Apple, and Microsoft Accounts

When you decide it’s time to give your kids access to your devices—or maybe even a phone or tablet of their own—you’ll want to make sure they stay safe. There are dangers and risks out there in the digital world, just as there are in the physical one.

Google, Apple, and Microsoft know this, and have built parental controls right into their various apps and platforms. These controls work by linking your account to the accounts of your kids, so you can put up the limits and safeguards you think are appropriate.

Google

Google’s tools for managing your family and keeping your kids safe can be set up and accessed via the Your family on Google page on the web. From here you can connect to up to five other family members, and create Google accounts for any youngsters who are under 13.

That links your account with others and pools any Google One cloud storage you might have paid for. The next step is to download the Google Family Link app for Android or iOS—this is where you can monitor how your children are using their devices, and put limits on that usage if needed.

Google’s controls include limits on search.

Photograph: David Nield

It’s worth mentioning that these features and controls only work if your kids are using Android devices or Chromebook laptops (though you can view and edit your settings from an iPhone or iPad). Neither Apple nor Google allow access to each other’s parental control services, so you really need a family using the same operating systems.

The Google Family Link app can show you where in the world your family members are. Tap the menu button (three lines, top left), pick a name, then choose Location—this is handy for anything from making sure your youngsters are home from school to figuring out where you need to pick them up from.

Then there’s the parental controls section inside the app. Tap on the child account you want to manage, then Controls and Daily limit to set how much time your kid can spend on their devices overall. As well as a daily limit, you’re also able to set a cut-off point via the Bedtime option, after which your youngster will find themselves locked out of their phones, tablets, and laptops until morning.

You can limit what your kids can buy online too.

Photograph: David Nield

Dig into the Content restrictions section under Controls for each of your kids and you can block or allow specific apps to be run. (You’ll also be able to approve new app downloads before they’re installed, though app updates can be applied without your permission.) You can’t limit time on specific apps, but you can see which apps your kids are using the most.

Finally, via the Highlights tab inside the app you can manage the Android and ChromeOS devices your child has access to, and see what they’re doing on those devices (in terms of the apps they’re using and installing, for example). You can also manage the same set of options through the Your family on Google page on the web.

Apple

Apple’s single stop for family account management is Family Sharing. Besides yourself, you can add up to five other people, kids or otherwise, and then share everything from Apple Music to purchased apps to iCloud storage. Children age 13 and over can have their own Apple ID. For younger children, you can create and manage an Apple ID for them.

To get started with Family Sharing, open Settings on an iPhone or iPad, tap your Apple account name at the top, then choose Family and Continue. If you’re on a Mac, open up System Settings from the Apple menu, then click your name and Family > Set Up Family. Follow the instructions to invite people to your family or set up the necessary Apple accounts for your youngsters.

Apple’s tools work across the desktop and mobile.

Courtesy of Apple

With your family created, services such as Apple TV Plus, Apple Music, Apple News Plus, and Apple Arcade are shared automatically if you’re subscribed to them. Any iCloud storage you’ve purchased is pooled between family members, and Photos automatically creates a shared album for everyone to use. Most of this happens without any effort on your part—when people in your family sign into their Apple account, they’ll see the same apps and services available as you do.

In terms of looking after your children, there are a few key tools bundled with Family Sharing. You can look up their locations on a map at any time—to do this, open up the Find My app on iOS or macOS and select the people you want to share your location with. You can also make sure that app, movie, music, and any other purchases your kids try to make go through you first. After selecting your Apple account in Settings on iOS or System Settings on macOS, choose Family then Purchase Sharing to set this up.

You can use the same Screen Time feature that tracks your own device usage to monitor what your kids are up to—and put limits in place if needed. Open up Screen Time from Settings on iOS or System Settings on macOS, and as long as you have a family sharing plan in place, you’ll be able to select each of your children and see what they’re up to, and put restrictions in place if needed.

Purchased content can be shared around families.

Photograph: David Nield

There are six key categories to work through, though they’re laid out slightly differently on mobile and on desktop: Downtime for controlling overall time on a device, App Limits for limiting time in specific apps, Communication Limits for controlling who your kids can chat with, Communication Safety for auto-detecting explicit content, Always Allowed for approving key apps for unlimited use, and Content & Privacy Restrictions for putting limits on accessing mature content—both in terms of videos and the web.

You can, for example, make sure only key apps like the Phone app are available after a certain time at night. Screen time works across Apple computers and mobile devices, so the settings are carried across, and of course you can adapt these settings at any time as your children get older.

Microsoft

The Microsoft account you use to sign in to Windows can form the basis of a family group that also allows you to keep tabs on your kids. These features work across Windows, Android, and Xbox, and to a limited extent on iOS (again, Apple doesn’t really allow other software the necessary access to apps for phone monitoring).

In this case, there’s a bit of a muddle of old and new tools. The best place to get started is the Microsoft Family Safety website. From there you’ll be able to specify the people in your family (families can have up to six people in them, including you), and access the Microsoft Family Safety app on the web, Android, and iOS.

You can manage your Microsoft family on the web and on mobile.

Photograph: David Nield

All the regular features for your family can be accessed through the apps on web and mobile. Pick one of your kids and you can see where they are on a map (based on the location of their Android device), see how much time they’re spending on their devices, and put limits on screen time, app use, and web access.

As with Google and Apple, children aged 13 and over can have their own Microsoft accounts, and you can create accounts for kids that are younger than that. Apps and games on Windows and Xbox can be filtered by age appropriateness, while web and search limits can be set through the Microsoft Edge browser. Apps can be blocked on Windows, Xbox, or Android.

Screen time is one of the features Microsoft lets you manage.

Courtesy of Microsoft

Tap the gear icon (top right) on any child profile on mobile to turn features like activity reporting, web filters, and app limits on or off. It gives you the flexibility you need to adjust these restrictions as your kids get older, and location sharing can also be toggled on or off from the same settings screen.

Choose Screen time from the child profile to set how long they’re allowed to spend on each device, and between which times. You can set app time limits on Windows, Xbox and Android, and overall screen time limits on Windows and Xbox. There are also tools on Windows and Xbox to keep children from buying new content or tons of in-app purchases. As long as your children are signing into their devices with their Microsoft accounts, the rules you’ve set will be applied.