Last year Google introduced an app called Family Link that is designed to give parents more control over their kids use of their Android phones and Tablets. And now it is upgrading the app to support Chromebooks, and is adding many of the same features to that platform.
Now, parents will be able to allow only those websites that they are okay and can block those who they don’t want to be visited by their children, they can also set screen time limits, establish a bedtime, remotely lock devices, and monitor usage. And for the first time, Chromebooks set up with supervised accounts will gain access to Android apps from the Google Play store.
Android apps can be white listed for use or hidden on the device, which could be useful for shared devices. Parents will also be able to manage in-app purchases on supervised accounts.
One interesting idea here is that Google will let you set up supervised accounts for teenagers, but the teens will have the ability to turn off those controls. You’ll get an alert when that happens and then probably have a very exciting conversation about your teenager’s Big Grown Up Moment of taking responsibility for their computer use.
