I've been looking into this and reading articles for the last hour or so, and haven't come up with anything. The simple version of what I'm trying to do, is when my kids are grounded or at school that I'd like to turn their smartphones into a dumb phone. They need to be able to call my wife or myself in case of emergency, call specific contacts if we're not available, but not chat with all their friends. If someone can point me in the right direction for where these controls are located I'd very much appreciate it. The 'Phone' app is not listed in FamilyLink under the apps I'm able to 'always allow' and there's no way I can see for me to limit calls to specific numbers. I'm totally open to third-party apps if there's a paid solution to this out there.

# Preface: A warning for parents If you want to protect your kids, disabling Incognito mode is usually not enough. If your kids are under age 13, it's wise to use a [good filter](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/117394/on-android-how-to-disable-google-chromes-incognito-mode) to block the YouTube app and website altogether. You can then switch them to [YouTube Kids](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/378644/youtube-kids-is-cleaner-than-regular-youtube-sadly-i-havent-found-any-metho) . To prevent late-night video viewing, and to avoid the [late-night reluctant messaging problem](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/117394/on-android-how-to-disable-google-chromes-incognito-mode) : At night, you can take away your kid's laptop. And you can configure a [bedtime](https://www.salon.com/2019/04/28/how-to-turn-kids-phones-off-at-night-or-anytime-really_partner/) for her phone and tablet. This will also make it harder for her to secretly use Facebook and games overnight. # Background The official YouTube app for Android includes an feature called ["Incognito mode"](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9040743) . I'd like to prevent myself from using this mode, in order to discourage myself from viewing risqué content. I'm logged into a [Google Family Link](https://families.google.com/familylink/) "child account". Family Link has automatically disabled Chrome's incognito mode. Unfortunately, the YouTube app's incognito mode still works fine. My phone is not rooted. Please assume that, if necessary, I'm willing to root it. # My options I assume my options include: * To downgrade to an older version of the YouTube app, from before the feature was rolled out. * To disable the app altogether. (If I still want to watch YouTube, my only remaining options will then be to use a web browser or a third-party YouTube client app. The website works quite well in both Chrome and Firefox Mobile. Maybe some of the third-party apps work equally well; I haven't yet tried many of them.) * Or to contact the Family Link team with an enhancement request. # My question Do I have any options other than the three options mentioned above? For example, can you offer me some instructions for modifying the decompressed YouTube .apk file contents, or can you suggest some other options?

I have kids, they have their Android tablets, and I have a credit card. I have created Google accounts for them, each for one tablet. I want to buy apps for them, but I don't want to enter any details of my credit card into their Google accounts, because the theory is that they will be using these accounts in the future to communicate, browse, etc. I don't want them charging my card without my knowledge. A while ago, when buying something in the Google Play Store, I was able to select between one of the tablet accounts and my own account. I then had to enter the password to my own account and was able to install the given app. Now this seems no longer to be possible. Is there a way of buying apps for my kids that is safe?

The lists of apps in Family Link on my children's devices are getting longer and longer. Many apps are pre-installed apps from the manufacturer that were available on former devices but are not available in the Play Store. Others are apps from kindergarten and would never be installed again. Is there a way to remove apps from the app list in Google's Family Link?

Even when the phone is locked to the maximum extent (bedtime on Google Family Link / Huawei parental controls), the child able to call friends. This is not what I want, especially during nights. I have spent a lot of time looking for a solution. This seems like something easy to implement (even locking the whole dialer app), however it looks like one would have to root the device to achieve this. I found one trail, *MMGuardian*, that claims to allow contacts white list, but this is paid software and I'm looking for a free solution. There is a Google topic about this, on which a lot of people voted. How come such a seemingly obvious functionality is not available?

My mother is a disabled person. She can't go out due to health issues. Her Android smartphone is the only way to communicate with the World (my brother, who lives abroad, her relatives, her friends etc). While she's not an advanced smartphone user, she plays with the phone a lot, what ends up with apps being deleted, contacts being blocked or removed, new unneeded subscriptions and so on. And she even does not realise, that she does all these (she says “the phone did this by itself”). This creates a lot of problems for me and nurses as we need to install and fix things all the time. Is there any app, like a launcher, that can help dealing with this? I mean, at least the app should deny deleting apps, what is, probably, the biggest problem. Another contact/phone app, that would not allow blocking contacts, would be handy too. That's another big problem. I thought about setting up Family Link, but, as far as I know, it does not prevent apps from being deleted. I considered also kid's launchers, but they usually limit, what can be launched, and I need to limit “management” functions. Note, that I don't need a launcher for elderly, that makes things big and have a simple interface. I need an app to prevent some actions like deleting WhatsApp and don't care if this is simple to do or not.

I'm searching for an app or settings that will allow only 2 applications to be used on an android tablet. They would use android and a web dashboard on chrome, on chrome they would get a certain link automatically loaded and I would try to make it impossible to go to other pages. I want to only allow those two apps to be used. I've looked in to kiosk mode ( but thats single app usage) I've tried COSU but that also not a solution. And parental control apps, but they show advertisement which I can't allow on the work floor.

I just have set up Google Family Link parental control. It very nice and seems to work well for the most part. However, I want to allow some apps (e.g. Wikipedia) without screen time restriction. I have found ways to give app permissions selectively, but not usage restrictions selectively. **How to exclude some select apps from the screen time limit?** **Additionally, is there a way to exclude/allow select apps from the device lock?** (E.g. I would like to allow to play music even at bedtime, but nothing else)

Is there any parental mode (via 3rd party app or native Android feature) that will prevent kids from adding any new contacts without preventing the ability to call, receive or view the saved contacts?

I tried to put my boy under my supervision on Google Family Link. I put a limited number of apps on his phone, only what he needs without a browser at all. One of the apps it has is Google Docs. Google Docs on smartphones has an option called 'Explore', where you can search the Internet, and it simply links you to Google and acts as a real browser. To try: open a sample document > enter edit mode (when the cursor is flashing) > click on the drawing of the three dots > Explore The whole idea was to block the browser so that it would be impossible to surf the Internet, but Google forgot a small hole in their security. I haven't even found a way to contact Google themselves, but I think that even if I contact them, no one will really care about me. Does anyone have an idea how to block it? Update: Google remove the exploer option

I installed the Google Family Link app on my kid's phone, mainly to limit his screen time. He asked me to be notified before his time is running out but I can't find a way to activate such a notification. Is there a way my son can tell how much time he has left to use his phone?

I've got an LG Smart TV (webOS - not Android), hardwired to the router and I have a Samsung Galaxy A54 phone. What I thought would be a straightforward IoT service to allow you to set/pause internet-screentime of the LG SmartTV, ideally from anywhere, using the phone, appears difficult/impossible. In summary, this is what I have tried. 1) Using the router settings (access via 192.168.1.1). This provided very crude settings of time limits in blocks of 1 hour, that can be applied to the SmartTV-internet connection. When I set these times, they worked somewhat randomly (not triggering at the exact set times or not triggering at all). Also, there is no app for the phone, and access is only while using the network and using a web portal (e.g. Chrome/Edge) while on the network. 2) Googling this question mostly brings up links to Parental Control of Android devices (LG is webOS-based). I tried to use the Android Parental Control app on my phone. It appears the app wants to pair with a device that has the app installed. However, the LG webOS is not Android-compatible. 3) Looked for apps on the LG webOS shop to control the internet connection. This did not provide any obvious solutions. I've run out of ideas. Is there any solution (hardware, software, or combination) where I can control the screen time of Internet TV? [I am happy to consider using a hardware item (e.g. Chromecast) to put between the router and the TV if such a solution is available/possible]

Since I transfer my daughter's data from Redmi Note 8T to Samsung A52 4G I noticed that in the Google Play Store the Parental Control has been activated and I cannot disabled it at all. I already tried all the procedure found in the web (clear Play Store's data, delete Google account and restore it back, perform a factory reset) but no of them seem to work. Does someone else get the same issue and know how I can solve? Maybe some settings in the Google account that I forget to check. (My daughter is 18 year old, so I can't really understand why the Parental Control has been activated) Here is a short video showing the issue: https://youtu.be/_5wB4xaAwXc

My son is playing chess on the Chess.com app on his Android phone. I do not have issues with the total time he is using the app, but rather the time of day (e.g. just before school or late in the evening). How can I restrict the usage of the app for him for only certain times of day? Note that there are other apps (e.g. maps) that I do not want to restrict at all, so blocking the whole phone down is not an option.

With parents running Android 13, what is the minimum Android version needed to be installed on a kid's device for parents to set per-app application time for their kids? I need to purchase a second-hand phone for my kid and would like to make the right choice. Note: I am not interested in using third-party parental control apps - just stock Android with Google Family Link. **EDIT: I am specifically interested in *per-app* time limits, *not* general device-level time limits provided by all Android versions since 7.x (as well as some 5.x/6.x devices)**.

Sometimes my kids forget to put their phones on ring mode and then I can’t reach them. I’m looking for a solution that will unmute their Galaxy S7 when my or my wife call them.

# Background information You're a parent. You use [Google Family Link](https://families.google.com/familylink/) to help provide parental controls on your child's Chromebook and Android devices. (As [Google admits](https://families.google.com/familylink/faq/) , no parental-control software is perfect. Therefore, you also keep all your child's devices in your own bedroom every night, until the child is old enough to need overnight smartphone access.) Among Family Link's other features, it lets you set two types of daily usage limits (on [most devices](https://support.google.com/families/answer/7103340)) : * A.) Device-wide daily usage limits. * B.) Per-app usage limits. However, if you set a per-app usage limit: Google Family Link doesn't seem to offer any on-screen indication on the child device showing the remaining time allowed for that app. # A question Is there any way to make a child Android device show a notification whenever an app is in use, showing how much time is left before Google Family Link will block the app?

I can't disable Parental control or add my own account on my son's Samsung Galaxy S10. The only option available since my son is only 9 is to remove or delete the account. As per updated Google Play services version 23.24.14 2023, they recommend the device for factory settings. Is there any other way?

I have a Samsung device. My friend and I were trying out the parental control feature. Even after stopping supervision, it's impossible to uninstall the parental control app and remove its restrictions Here are some deets: 2. I've already tried age verification 3. Already stopped the supervision on my friend's phone 4. Tried clearing the cache and storage of all Google apps 5. Removed myself from the family through Play Store 6. Tried resetting all settings, but factory reset is disabled 7. Tried disabling parental control as a device admin, it is greyed out 8. Unable to boot into safe mode 9. Can't enable developer mode (so no ADB) 10. Security certificate section is disabled 11. Deleting my Google account is not at all an option, it's my primary account 12. Tried changing the password of my Google account, and tried to force log out and reset using the Find My Device feature. That didn't work (it says no device registered) 13. Tried transferring the app (Family Link) to the SD card, and removing the SD card. Didn't help, it still has restrictions 14. Unable to reset the phone through Samsung Find My Device and through Google Find My Phone (both say my phone is not registered) 15. On my friend's phone, it says open parental control (by going to Google in Settings) and set it up again to start supervision. 16. Another question with a similar problem https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/204438/what-to-do-when-stop-supervision-does-not-stop-supervision-in-google-family-li . As mentioned in the answer, I tried waiting, and it's been more than 24 hours, nothing has happened, the issue still persists 17. Tried meddling with my birthday in my Google account, but at some point, it asked me to verify my age through a card, which I did. And the age got verified. 18. Tried to install the beta version of Family Link, by signing up through Google Play Store, hopping the beta has resolved the issue, but it didn't help 19. Tried restarting my phone several times, but to no avail 20. Tried hard resetting (through the recovery menu), but the phone won’t go into recovery, it vibrates at a point where it was supposed to go into the recovery menu, and boots normally and the phone turns on My problem is my phone has become laggy and I'm not able to add Google accounts. Unable to reset my phone. Please help in removing the app Family Link.

I have an old functional Honor phone with Android 6 which would be perfect for the little ones to use basic apps such as Spotify Kids or Youtube Kids. I created a Google kids account, added it to my family and got myself a Family link app for parents where I can control the kid's account. Then, I have factory-reset the Honor and set it up with the kid's account. But now I am locked out. I cannot seem to find a way get parent's administrator rights. When I go to Settings > Security > Administrators I can only see an active parents administrator but the setting is grayed out. I cannot access it. Also, I cannot find any button or app that contains the entry to "parent access." What can I do? To add more complexity: I cannot install any apps because the Google Play Services are too old and you cannot update the services without updating them first ;) As administrator I would be able to manually upgrade the services so that I can restore Play functionally completely (I have done this before). But now with the kid's account I can no longer install apps from untrusted sources (fortunately), but it seems I can also no longer gain parent access. How to gain administrator privileges on a kid's Android 6 phone? Does anyone remember? Otherwise I might have soft-bricked the device and locked myself out forever.