Parental controls on Android: built-in settings, Family Link, and apps

Digital Wellbeing: timers for the phone’s owner

Digital Wellbeing gives you three tools: app timers, a Bedtime mode schedule, and Focus mode, which pauses the apps you pick for a while. Google’s help page describes it on Pixel and notes that some steps may vary by device, so on Samsung, Honor, or Xiaomi phones the menus look different.

A timer is simple: when time runs out, the app closes and its icon dims. Timers reset at midnight. To use the app again before then, Google’s instructions say to go back to the same screen and delete the timer. A child who knows their way around Settings can do exactly that.

On Pixel you can protect app limits with a 4-digit App limits PIN. Bedtime mode can still be switched on and off from Quick Settings. For a child, Digital Wellbeing works as an agreement: they can see how many minutes went into a game and keep track of the limit themselves. It cannot hold a limit against their will.

The Parental controls section in Android 17

On June 16, 2026, Google announced that the parental controls previously found only on Pixel would come to every device that updates to Android 17. The controls live in the phone’s Settings, and every option sits behind a parent PIN of at least four digits.

Once the PIN is set, you get a daily limit, downtime, time limits for individual apps, blocked apps, web content filters, and app store filters. When the daily limit runs out, the phone locks. The lock screen shows an Add more time button, and extra time only goes through after someone enters the PIN. A blocked app disappears from All apps.

Google’s help page lists a few conditions worth knowing before you start. You need Android 17 or later, so if the manufacturer never ships that update for your child’s phone, the section won’t appear on it. You can check the version under Settings → About phone → Android version. If the phone has a work profile or a private space, on-device controls can’t be turned on at all.

The web filter works in Chrome, the Google app, and Android System WebView. Other browsers are covered only if their developers have added support for the feature. The app store filter applies to new installs: a game that is already on the phone stays there until you block it yourself.

If you forget the PIN and never added a recovery account, the only way to reset it is a factory reset, which wipes the phone. You can add a recovery account under Manage parental controls PIN. We suggest doing it the same day you set the PIN.

All of these settings are changed on the child’s phone itself. If you want to manage rules from your own phone, the same section has a button to set up Google Family Link.

Family Link: managing from the parent’s phone

You install Family Link on your own Android phone or iPhone and use it to supervise your child’s Google Account. The child’s phone needs Android 6.0 or later, and screen time limits need Android 7.0 or later. From the app you choose which apps your child can download, block the ones you don’t want, set a daily limit and a bedtime, see minutes per app, and check where your child is on a map.

A daily limit set in Family Link applies to every Android device and Chromebook your child uses. When the limit runs out, your child can’t see notifications or open apps, apart from the ones you marked as always allowed. Calls and emergency calls still work.

Where Family Link lets limits slip

When you block an app, the change takes effect within five minutes, or as soon as the child’s phone goes back online. If your child is using that app at the moment, they get a warning and one more minute.

You can’t set time limits on system apps. Which apps count as system apps depends on the phone and its software.

App approval only covers the first install. Google says so plainly: your child can download apps that were previously installed or approved without asking you again. A game deleted last month comes back without a new request. Purchase approvals also apply only to purchases made through Google Play billing.

Family Link doesn’t reach the computer. You can’t use it to set up parental controls on computers other than Chromebooks, or on a child’s iPhone.

At 13 (the age varies by country), Google emails both the child and the parent to say the account can be updated. The settings stay as they are until the child updates the account, and a child under 18 can only turn off supervision with parental approval. Both of you get a notification when supervision ends.

If the limits are set but the phone still doesn’t lock, we went through the usual causes in Family Link not working.

Samsung, Honor, Xiaomi: manufacturer settings on top of Android

Phone makers add their own sections to Android. Samsung has the Samsung Kids mode, Honor has Digital Balance with a “My child” mode, and Xiaomi has Second space, a separate space where a parent’s rules don’t apply. We covered the menu paths and what each one does by brand: Samsung, Honor, Xiaomi.

These skins have a downside too. Their battery-saving modes shut down apps running in the background, and a parental control app gets shut down just like a messenger. Reports stop arriving even though the app is still installed. The switches that fix this on Honor and Samsung are in parental controls stopped working on Android.

What to check in a separate app

A separate app makes sense when the built-in tools fall short: the phone will never get Android 17, your child also uses a computer, or a teenager has already figured out where timers are deleted. Nearly every parental control app has limits and schedules, so comparing feature lists tells you little. We would look at four things.

Uninstall protection. On Android this comes from device administrator rights. Without them, a parental control app can be uninstalled like any game. Ask whether you get notified when someone tries to remove it.

What you learn when it stops. Any app on a child’s phone can be stopped: force-closed in Settings, cut off by turning the phone off, bypassed by switching to another Android user, or crippled by a revoked permission. No app can prevent that. What differs is whether you see when protection stopped and why.

Battery saver behavior. The app should tell you itself when battery saving is still on for it on your child’s phone. Otherwise, the first sign is an empty report.

Which devices it covers. If homework and games happen on a computer, a phone-only app covers half the day. We compared apps by devices and price on the parental control apps compared page.

How Gardion handles this

We built Gardion for families where the child has an Android phone and a Windows PC. Parents manage rules for both devices from a web dashboard or the parent app. On the child’s phone, Gardion runs as a device administrator. If that permission is switched off or battery saving is still on, the dashboard shows it. You get a notification when protection is stopped manually or when someone switches Android users, and the activity feed shows when protection stopped working and why.

Android is part of the Family plan: $39 a year for two devices and two children. The first 14 days come with full access, so you can see how Gardion behaves on your child’s phone before you pay. Per-app limits, reports, and setup steps are on the Gardion for Android page.

Choosing an option step by step

Step 1. On your child’s phone, open Settings → About phone → Android version. If it says 17 or higher, start with the built-in Parental controls section: it is already on the phone and protected by your PIN.

Step 2. Decide where you want to change rules from. If you need to extend a limit from your own phone while your child is at school, set up Family Link.

Step 3. Count the devices. Neither Android’s settings nor Family Link can manage a Windows PC. For the PC there is Microsoft Family Safety, or an app that covers the phone and the computer together; more on the computer side on the Gardion for Windows page.

Step 4. If your child is 13 or older, talk it through before you install anything. At that age Google emails them about updating the account, and it helps to agree on the rules before that email arrives.

Step 5. If your child has already removed limits before, read how kids bypass parental controls and pick an app with uninstall protection and alerts when protection stops.