Android 16 Just Put Parental Controls Directly on Your Kid’s Phone

In the long-running competition between Android and iOS, iPhones have always had the edge in terms of parental controls: they’re a bit simpler and more intuitive, and easier for caregivers to understand and manage. Apple does a lot of things right, and making its apps and devices work seamlessly is certainly one of them.

Google, however, is gradually improving the experience for parents, with a batch of updates earlier this year, and now a few more changes as part of a major Android 16 upgrade. The latest changes mean more controls are accessible on your kids’ devices.

What’s new in Android 16

The usual Android caveat applies here: every Android phone manufacturer does things slightly differently, although there isn’t really much variation in this particular area. The latest Android 16 updates mentioned above are now rolling out to Pixel phones (and I tested them on a Pixel), but it will take some time to reach other handsets: Samsung phones will likely receive them early next year, for example, with One UI 8.5.

So what’s new? Essentially, more of the existing parental controls are available on your kids’ Android devices, so you can access them from their phones and tablets as well as access them remotely. This should make your life easier if you are with your children and they trust you with their devices.

You can find what options have been added to kids’ devices by opening Settings on your child’s phone or tablet and choosing Parental Control. You’ll immediately see a toggle switch to enable controls on the device, and when you enable them, you’ll need to enter a PIN to prevent your child from changing these settings themselves.

New on-device controls in Android 16.
Credit: Lifehacker

There are then four sections that you can access: Daily limit, Application Limitations, DowntimeAnd Website Content Filters. Tap one of them to set restrictions for the current device, which can be adjusted based on the day of the week in some cases. Take Downtimefor example, and you can set times when the device is locked. These correspond to the tools that you could previously manage remotely.

Select Daily limitthen turn it on Use daily limit toggle switch and you can control how many hours your child can use their phone or tablet each day. There’s also a bar graph showing device usage over time, so you can see how much screen time your child has been getting.

These settings are simple, understandable and easy to use: you don’t have to worry about Google accounts or family relationships if you don’t want to. You can simply enter a PIN and start making changes. You don’t necessarily need to connect these settings to other devices. If you want to manage them remotely, Google has a broader parental control system.

Google Family Link controls

The new Android 16 controls that appear on devices can work independently of anything else, but Google already has plenty of options if you need them. Everything is managed through the Google Family Link portal, which you can access on the web or through apps on Android or iOS.

You can use Google Family Link to set up Google accounts for your children, then manage what they can do with them. The idea is that they sign in to their Android devices using the account you created for them, and because Google knows you have a verified connection with them, you can impose restrictions on those devices remotely.

All the usual safeguards and protections are covered: you can set screen time limits, manage which apps your kids can use (and how often), block certain websites and website categories, and set up parental approvals for making purchases through Google’s various digital storefronts. These mostly match what is now available on the device.

Google Family Link on the web.
Credit: Lifehacker

There’s also a location tracking element in Google Family Link, which allows you to see where your young ones are at any time and even receive notifications based on their movements: you might want to be pinged when they show up to school, for example, or when they leave the house. All of this can be managed through apps.

More recent updates allow you to control how much screen time your children can spend during school hours, and there are now tools to manage who young people can interact with. You can’t yet access these controls directly on your kids’ devices. There are also numerous usage reports alongside these controls.

Add it all up and Google now has a pretty comprehensive set of parental controls that you can manage from any device or from the devices your kids use, assuming you gave them Android phones or tablets.