A parent’s consent is required for children and teens under their country’s minimum age requirement to use Google’s services. When providing this consent, the parent must agree to supervise the Google Account.
If you don't wish to consent to your child’s continued use of Google’s services, you can also delete his or her Google Account.
How supervision works
What parents can see & do
If you, as a parent, consent to your child’s continued use of Google’s services and you agree to supervise your child’s Google Account, you can use Family Link to manage things like:
Account settings & controls- Update your child’s account info and some settings
- Delete your child’s account
- Help your child sign in to other devices with their Google Account
- Manage settings like Web and App Activity that control how Google collects and processes your child’s data
- Approve app requests from Google Play
- Block apps you don’t want your child to use
- See which apps your child uses, and for how long
- Set daily screen time limits
- Remotely lock devices when it’s time to study or sleep
- Block or allow sites on Chrome
- Turn SafeSearch on or off
- Manage what your child can browse, purchase, or download on Google Play
Tip: Purchase approval settings apply only to purchases made through Google Play's billing system.
What parents can’t see or do
- Parents can’t remotely listen to their child’s phone calls
- Parents can’t remotely see what’s on their child’s screen
As a reminder, parents can always change their child’s account password and access their account, but their child will be able to tell if this happens. Google will send their child an email and sign them out of their account.
What you need
To set up supervision required by law to their child’s existing Google Account, parents must:
- Have a Google Account. If you don’t have one you can create a Google Account at no charge.
- Be 18 or older (or the appropriate age in their country).
- Live in the same country as their child.
To let a parent supervise their existing Google Account, a child needs to:
- Agree to parental supervision
- Live in the same country as their parent
Before you begin
You and your child may want to set up supervision together. To complete supervision setup, you (the parent) will need to have or create a Google Account.
Tip: If you sign in to Google products like Gmail, you already have a Google Account.
Set up supervision
- On your child’s device, click here.
- Click Set up supervision
Next.
- Sign in with your parent account. Then, click Next.
- Review with your child the “About supervision” and the “Changes to your child’s Google services” screens.
- Confirm your child's account password and click Agree.
- Review the Privacy Notice, then click Agree.
- Confirm your parent account password.
- To link your accounts, click Next.
- Follow the steps to setup supervision of your child’s account.
Fix "can’t use account" error
To set up supervision to your child’s Android device, they must remove other accounts from the device. They shouldn’t remove the supervised account.
Tip: When your child removes an account from their device, everything associated with that account is also deleted from your child’s device. This includes email, contacts, and settings.
Have your child:
- On their Android device, open the Settings app.
- Tap Accounts.
- If you don't see "Accounts," tap Users & accounts.
- Tap the account you want to remove
- Add supervision to an Android device.
If your child has a Google Classroom account
Your child can add it back to their Android device after they have finished set up supervision.
