Google Family Link

Peen

We're thinking about getting my 10 year old a cell phone because she's starting to have more after-school activities and other semi-independent activities and her having a phone would be really handy. I've been trying to figure out what the best way to give her a phone safely is, and I like the idea of the Google Family Link set of parent controls as a way to get her a better phone that we can still keep pretty locked down, and gradually relax the limits as she gets older.

Has anyone in here tried it that can speak to real world pros and cons?

Gnizmo

We used Google Family Link with my kid and it was pretty effective for what we wanted. The controls were pretty easy to set-up, and seemed fairly difficult to circumvent. Mind you my kid is not one to try typically so that might not hold up against a dedicated child. The flexibility for what you can have it do was the best part for us. Seeing which apps were used for how long probably has appeal to a different style of parenting, but for us it was mostly just a weird bit of trivia.

I will say my favorite bit was the remote lock that lets you call through and be answered. More than a few times I would call only to be sent to voicemail. Lock the phone, wait a few seconds, call again and like magic my kid would answer. Location access has also been nice, but also not something we super used. Mostly it has been used to see where the damn school bus is, or where my kid left the phone last. It does alert the phone that is being tracked that it is being tracked as well if that is notable to you.

Happy to answer any specific questions you have as well. I fooled around with it a lot to see what we could do before deciding what we wanted to do. It has a lot of options, I will say.

Viangar

The only thing I would recommend explaining to your child is how you will access their information, what you will use and what not. While you are going to restrict her access in the best possible way, she has privacy rights.