Setting up Google Family Link properly, step by step
Android's free controls do more than most parents expect, once the account is set up right. Allow forty minutes, and don't skip step five.
On this page
Your child's Android phone or tablet, your own phone (Android or iPhone both work), and the child's date of birth details. Forty minutes if you're creating an account, less if one exists.
Step 1: create the child's Google account
Everything in Family Link hangs off the child having their own Google account inside your family group. Install the Family Link app on your phone, choose "Add child", and follow the account creation flow. Google asks for the child's real date of birth, and that date controls when supervision loosens later, so resist the urge to fudge it.
If the child already has an account, choose the option to supervise it instead. The child has to agree on their device, which is a better start to all this than doing it behind their back anyway.
Step 2: pair the devices
Sign the child's account into their device. On anything recent, Android recognises it's a supervised account and configures itself; you'll confirm the link with a code shown on both screens. When it finishes, check the child's Settings → Google → Parental controls shows your name. That's the sign supervision actually attached.
Step 3: set limits and bedtime
In the parent app, the Controls tab holds the three that matter: a daily limit, a bedtime window, and per-app limits. The same advice we give for Screen Time applies here. Set the schedule your house actually runs, not the one you aspire to. A limit that gets extended every evening teaches the child that limits are negotiable.
Calls still work during downtime, and you can mark specific apps "always allowed". The bus ticket app has saved more than one school run.
Step 4: turn on app approvals
Under Controls → Content restrictions → Google Play, set "Apps and games" to the age band you want and turn on approval for all downloads, including free ones. Free is where the trouble lives; nobody's card gets charged by the app that streams age-inappropriate video.
Approvals only cover the Play Store. Sideloaded APKs are blocked for supervised accounts by default. Leave "unknown sources" locked, and say no the first time a YouTube tutorial tells your child to enable it.
Step 5: fix the web filtering gap
Family Link's web filter is its weak point: it forces SafeSearch and asks Chrome to "try to block" adult sites, which is as reassuring as it sounds. Close the gap for free with a filtering DNS service on your home router (our DNS filtering guidecovers it in one router change), and know about the two workarounds that survive everything: guest mode and factory reset. You can't prevent either, but both are obvious when you look at the device, and Family Link notifies you if supervision is removed.
Family Link plus router-level DNS filtering covers most of what the paid apps charge for, for nothing. Pay only if you need readable reports or message monitoring.
Common questions
My child already has a Google account. Do we start again?
No. Family Link can bring an existing account under supervision. Google walks the child through what changes, and nothing in their Drive, Photos or Gmail is lost. Allow a quiet half hour for it rather than doing it in a rush.
Can Family Link see WhatsApp or Snapchat messages?
No. It manages time, app installs and device settings; it doesn’t read content in any app. If message content is your worry, that’s a different kind of tool (Bark is the best-known example), and worth researching separately.
What stops my child just deleting Family Link?
Supervision is attached to the account, not the app, and removing it on a child account needs your parental access code. The two real workarounds, guest mode and factory reset, both leave visible traces, and we explain them in step five.