Google’s Family Link gets ‘Always Allowed’ apps, detailed activity reports and more

Google today announced a bunch of new updates that are aimed at helping parents keep their kids safe online. The updates not only include introducing a new website but also updating the company’s Family Link feature.

The company today announced that it is introducing a new ‘Always Allowed’ apps feature to Family Link. This feature will enable parents to allow their kids to spend time with specific pre-approved apps even when their screen time is up. For instance, if your child needs certain apps for remote learning, they can be marked as “always allowed” so they won’t be counted toward their daily screen time limit.

In addition to this, parents will now be able to see detailed activity reports of their kids’ web activity. Google says that parents can now see added details to daily, weekly and monthly activity reports. This will give them an overview of how their kids are spending their time in apps, how it changes over a week or month and what portion of time was spent in “always allowed” apps.

The company has also announced that the Family Link on Android app will now show a teacher-recommended app card that has suggestions from a catalogue of thousands of teacher-approved Google Play apps for kids under 13 in the US. Parents can select an app and download it directly to their child’s device. The app will also help parents see the battery life of their kids’ devices.

Lastly, the company announced that in the Android Settings for parental controls, parents can now set screen time limits right from their child’s device.

Apart from this, Google has launched a new website -- families.google -- that has detailed guides that spell out how to approach kids’ technology use from various organisations. The website will also show the latest apps and services and find helpful information on parental controls across the web. Additionally, parents will also see tips on how to manage online safety and digital wellbeing as well as fun online activities for families and tools for the classroom.