As we approach the end of summer vacations, it’s back to school time in most parts of the world.
Google seems to have preparations in full swing as it just announced some key parental control features for Android devices. These features will enable parents to restrict the internet on their kids’ devices and other privileges when they aren’t nearby.
For instance, if your child is taking a phone to school, enabling the controls means they’re restricted from accessing them in that period when there is a parent or guardian nearby.
The feature dubbed School Time enables parents to lock kids out of a series of platforms and while we did see it launch on the Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch in June of this year, it’s now coming to mobile devices, Galaxy watches, tablets, and more.
Tech giant Apple was seen branding the feature as one of its own before and for now, it’s still locked to be a part of smartwatches. Now the question has to do with how exactly this really works.
As per Google, the child’s phone gets booted to the home screen when in the active phase. This would provide them with access to just certain platforms that the parent selects. Meanwhile, the parent sets it up through a family link platform which happens to be where it would attain a fixed figure for school hours called School Time.
In this way, the number of calls coming in and going out is restricted as are the messages linked to particular contacts like close family members of emergency contact. For now, we’re not quite sure if Google is going to use certain emergency numbers or if that’s going to be a default on the app. But we feel the reply is a yes in terms of how the whole screen time limit endeavor works.
Google was seen specifying that despite what the name might indicate, School Time could be turned on when the child isn’t at school. Hence, you don’t need to be worried about the block coming into play at certain times of the day.
We know that the feature is yet to arrive on mobile phones and therefore there are still some queries about how the whole process of setup begins.
In the same manner, it’s not clear how the devices are going to get it. The search engine giant mentioned that over the next part of the year, they hope to bring School Time to a greater number of devices such as Android phones, tablets, and Galaxy watches.
Can you imagine a child asking the parent for the tab and making use of School Time to support this justification? For instance, a kid goes up to their parents for a request for the latest Pixel 9 Pro and uses ‘School Time’ support as the excuse.
We do find such features redundant when there are already existing screen time limits in place. The major advantage here has to do with a limited number of platforms that would be useful if kids require them for apps regarding lessons. The same would be the case if they’re allowed to benefit from limited gaming during activities such as recess or being on the bus.
Other than this rollout, Google spoke about another suggestion where teenagers whose parents cannot monitor through Family Link would switch this on through the Focus Mode endeavor to get similar effects.
The firm also mentioned how parents can look forward to getting updates to the YouTube app during the later part of the summer period. This enables linking children’s accounts to theirs and providing greater insights into their screens and watch history.
Read next: Meta's Threads Reaches 200 Million Users, Shows Threefold Growth Surge Over Recent Months
Google seems to have preparations in full swing as it just announced some key parental control features for Android devices. These features will enable parents to restrict the internet on their kids’ devices and other privileges when they aren’t nearby.
For instance, if your child is taking a phone to school, enabling the controls means they’re restricted from accessing them in that period when there is a parent or guardian nearby.
The feature dubbed School Time enables parents to lock kids out of a series of platforms and while we did see it launch on the Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch in June of this year, it’s now coming to mobile devices, Galaxy watches, tablets, and more.
Tech giant Apple was seen branding the feature as one of its own before and for now, it’s still locked to be a part of smartwatches. Now the question has to do with how exactly this really works.
As per Google, the child’s phone gets booted to the home screen when in the active phase. This would provide them with access to just certain platforms that the parent selects. Meanwhile, the parent sets it up through a family link platform which happens to be where it would attain a fixed figure for school hours called School Time.
In this way, the number of calls coming in and going out is restricted as are the messages linked to particular contacts like close family members of emergency contact. For now, we’re not quite sure if Google is going to use certain emergency numbers or if that’s going to be a default on the app. But we feel the reply is a yes in terms of how the whole screen time limit endeavor works.
Google was seen specifying that despite what the name might indicate, School Time could be turned on when the child isn’t at school. Hence, you don’t need to be worried about the block coming into play at certain times of the day.
We know that the feature is yet to arrive on mobile phones and therefore there are still some queries about how the whole process of setup begins.
In the same manner, it’s not clear how the devices are going to get it. The search engine giant mentioned that over the next part of the year, they hope to bring School Time to a greater number of devices such as Android phones, tablets, and Galaxy watches.
Can you imagine a child asking the parent for the tab and making use of School Time to support this justification? For instance, a kid goes up to their parents for a request for the latest Pixel 9 Pro and uses ‘School Time’ support as the excuse.
We do find such features redundant when there are already existing screen time limits in place. The major advantage here has to do with a limited number of platforms that would be useful if kids require them for apps regarding lessons. The same would be the case if they’re allowed to benefit from limited gaming during activities such as recess or being on the bus.
Other than this rollout, Google spoke about another suggestion where teenagers whose parents cannot monitor through Family Link would switch this on through the Focus Mode endeavor to get similar effects.
The firm also mentioned how parents can look forward to getting updates to the YouTube app during the later part of the summer period. This enables linking children’s accounts to theirs and providing greater insights into their screens and watch history.
Read next: Meta's Threads Reaches 200 Million Users, Shows Threefold Growth Surge Over Recent Months
