Keeping our children safe in the digital age is important to us. It isn’t simply about restricting content, but also restricting features that they may only have access to when they are more mature, such as purchasing and downloading. This means we need to pay attention to the settings we enable. On Android, this can be very simple to control. Here are some simple ways to set some parental controls on your child’s iPhone.
Please note, these steps may differ depending on the Android version you are using.
How to set up content rating restrictions
- Tap the Play Store app on your Android device.
- Tap the profile icon in the top right corner of the screen.
- Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
- In the "Settings" menu, tap on "Family" and then "Parental controls".
- Toggle the switch to turn on Parental controls.
- You will be prompted to create a PIN. This PIN will be used to change the parental control settings in the future.
- Once parental controls are enabled, you can set restrictions for various types of content:
- Apps & Games: Choose the highest content rating you allow for downloads or purchases.
- Movies: Set restrictions based on movie ratings.
- TV: Set restrictions based on TV ratings.
- Books: Restrict books by maturity level.
- Music: Restrict music marked as explicit by content providers.
How to allow or restrict built-in apps and features
- Go to the "Settings" app on your device.
- Tap on "Apps" or "Apps & notifications" (depending on your device).
- Tap on "See all apps" to view a list of all installed apps.
- Choose the built-in app you want to restrict.
- Tap "Disable" to turn off the app. This will prevent the app from running or appearing on the home screen.
How to set web restrictions
Method 1: Directly via Google Chrome:
Open Google Chrome.
Go to Google Search settings.
Turn on SafeSearch to filter explicit content.
Method 2: Through Google Family Link:
- Install the Google Family Link app from the Play Store on both your device and the child’s device.
- Open the Family Link app on your device and follow the on-screen instructions to set up an account for your child.
- Open the Family Link app.
- Select your child's account.
- Tap on "Manage settings" and then "Filters on Google Chrome" or "Filters on Chrome".
- Choose the desired web filtering option:
- Allow all sites: No restrictions.
- Try to block mature sites: Google will attempt to block sexually explicit and violent sites.
- Only allow certain sites: You can whitelist specific sites that are allowed. Add websites that are allowed manually.
How to prevent app store purchases
- Tap the Play Store app on your Android device.
- Tap the profile icon in the top right corner of the screen.
- Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
- In the "Settings" menu, tap on "Family" and then "Parental controls".
- Toggle the switch to turn on Parental controls.
- You will be prompted to create a PIN. This PIN will be used to change the parental control settings in the future.
- Once parental controls are enabled, you can restrict purchases by setting up "Require authentication for purchases".
- Under "User controls," tap "Require authentication for purchases" and select "For all purchases through Google Play on this device."
Summary
By using these simple settings, you can easily set up parental controls to keep your child safe. We recommend checking the settings regularly in case there are any updates which may make new changes or offer new settings for you to use.