How to set up parental controls on chromebooks
By William Rodriguez
This post is also available in: French Chinese (Simplified)
Why are parental controls important, now more than ever? In a world where technology is moving fast, with innovations upon innovations, parents need to understand why they’re necessary on computers and other devices kids use, for the protection of these young minds.
Parental controls have come a long way
In the past, these monitoring methods were seen as a nuisance or simply not great solutions. They required extra setup on devices that were already difficult or frustrating to use, and tech-savvy kids often found ways to undo the safeguards, which rendered them useless.
However, as technology advanced, so did control options. Nowadays, parental controls are easy to setup and they’re vital in controlling how much time your child is able to spend on the internet. But they are also ways to keep an eye on how your children are using technology.
If you want to ensure that your kids are safe on the internet, then you need to know the answer to the following question. It is: Why are parental controls important? Here are five reasons for setup at home:
1. Limit downloads to keep your computers safer
Kids are usually gullible and easy to fool, which makes them prime targets for hackers and cyber-criminals. The reason is they’re more likely to download programs that look legitimate but are actually viruses designed to be as close to the original as possible.
This likeness will trick many kids into thinking they are downloading something useful while spending time on the computer and phone. But, in actual fact, it’s something that could destroy the technology. It can lock your computers and even spread to other devices in the same home network.
In short, parental controls that limit downloads are important not only for your children but also for you. To keep your computers safe and your networks free of viruses and malware, you’d be wise to limit what your kids can and cannot download online.
2. Shield your children from questionable online content
It’s not unusual to place strict parental controls on what content your children are allowed to see online. For example, you might want to block certain search terms and blacklist various websites to prevent your child from accidentally stumbling onto them.
This action might give them a lack of freedom, especially if moms and dads are a little overzealous with the websites they block. But it’s important to shield your child from certain types of content. They are better off not not having negative influences at a young age.
When you will remove this blacklist depends on your personal preferences. But it’s usually a good idea to remove it sooner rather than later if you believe that your kids are ready to brave the world.
The types of questionable content that we see on a regular basis online will come before their eyes at some point, unfortunately; you can only shield them for so long and raise them to understand what is right. Good values will take them far, and you can be proud of their ability to make good decisions.
3. Parental controls prevent unintentionable abuse of money
Many parents trust their kids with their tablets and smartphones. However, many children don’t understand just what it takes to earn money. This makes sense as they’ve never had a job.
Thus, they might purchase things such as games or in-app purchases on their favorite smartphone and tablet games without any thought about the consequences. There have been countless situations like this one in the news.
It’s becoming an increasing problem with parents who don’t activate the parental control settings on their devices. You’d be surprised at just how easy it is for a child to accidentally drain your entire bank account by pressing a few buttons on a device without parental control locks.
These locks are easy to set up, forcing your child to ask before able to purchase anything on smartphones and tablets. This process provides a great opportunity to teach your children about money so that they have a solid understanding of what it means to have additional responsibility in life.
4. Monitor your child’s usage to identify problems
Whether it’s using iPhone monitoring software to track their photos and location history or tracking purchases made with their Android phone, it’s important to monitor how your child uses technology. That way, you have the time to identify certain problems in their behavior.
For example, let’s say that your child spends too much time on video games. In this case, there’s an risk of them falling behind in school. If they miss projects and fail tests, they will have even more issues. In this case, there needs to be a discussion about priorities before they start to lag in class.
Monitoring text messages and Facebook posts can also help you identify online bullying or threats toward your younster at school. Prevention is usually the best answer to these types of problems.
Now you see another answer to the question of “why are parental controls important?” It is vital for you to play an active role in monitoring your boy or girl’s usage of various devices and services. Only then can you get a clear picture of the situation.
5. Help limit your kids’ time online
Parental controls can also limit how much time your children spend on computers. It achieves this by setting times that give your child internet access.
When a certain amount of time passes, the network will automatically cut the internet connection. That way, your child can no longer access the computer or mobile device.
This lock ensures that you can get kids to bed on time and help prevent a tech addiction. It will also help little ones to maintain a healthy balance between online and offline activities.
Final words on w hy are parental controls important
As you can see, parental controls are often overlooked, yet they’re still incredibly valuable. That is especially true when it comes to protecting your child from the wild west online.
These internet-based parental controls are ones you can set and install on individual devices or on your internet router. The router is the better choice of the two.
For hardware setup, it might take some learning to figure out but it’s absolutely worth it for your child’s protection and the betterment of the family unit. T here are usually instructions in the boxes of the devices you have or you can find guides online. The guides will help you as long as you know the specific make and model of the home internet router.
Google ended the Supervised Users program for Chrome but promised a set of new Chromebook parental controls. Those controls turned out to be Google Family Link. Today, we’ll show you how to use Google Family Link to set up parental controls for your children’s Chromebooks.
New to the world of Chromebooks? Our guide on what to expect from a Chromebook helps explain what they can and can’t do, buying options, and setup guides for first-time Chromebook users.
How to set up Chromebook parental controls:
- Device requirements
- Setting up parental controls
- Features in Family Link
- Current limitations
Device requirements
Parents will need Android devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or above, or an Apple device running iOS 11 or above to use Chromebook parental controls with Google Family Link. The Chromebook in question will need to run Chrome OS 71 or above and you can also install Google Family Link on Android devices running Android 7.0 Nougat or newer. If your Chromebook isn’t updated, don’t forget to check out our step-by-step guide on how to do so below.
Setting up Chromebook parental controls
- First, download and use the Google Family Link app on your phone to set up an account for your child.
- If it is a new Chromebook, go through the setup process and sign in with your (parent) account. This is vital, as the first account used to sign in becomes the owner account and has access to special privileges. Skip to the next step if the Chromebook is already active.
- Now, add your child’s account to the Chromebook.
It is recommended that you disable guest mode and control who can sign in to your child’s Chromebook. If the guest mode or the ability to add new users is available, your child may be able to bypass Chromebook parental controls.
To do so, sign in to the Chromebook with the Owner (parent) account. Click on the account photo and go to Settings. In the People section, go to Manage Other People. Turn on Restrict sign-in to the following users. You will see a list of accounts added to the Chromebook and be able to add and remove them accordingly. Next, turn off Enable Guest Browsing.
Chromebook parental control features in Google Family Link
We’ve talked plenty about how to set your Google Family Link restrictions, but what can you actually do? After all, it’s not helpful to run into Family Link mostly blind. Here are a few of the most important features you can manage:
- Restrict or block access to apps from the Chrome Web Store and the Google Play Store.
- Disable Incognito Mode.
- Manage the websites their children can visit on Chrome.
- Limit a child’s ability to grant permissions to websites.
- By default with Family Link, the Chrome browser tries to block sexually explicit and violent sites from being shown to children.
- Set bedtimes, time limits, and lock devices.
Current limitations
There are still a few features missing from Chromebook parental controls via Google Family Link. One limitation of Google Family Link is that it can only be used to set up accounts for children under 13. After that, children can create and set up regular Google Accounts.
Many consider it a big limitation that Google Family Link cannot be used with Google accounts set up with G Suite. Users (parents) will need a Gmail account to log in and use Family Link to set up parental controls on any of their children’s devices.
That’s all there is to setting up Chromebook parental controls! There are some impressive premium, third-party services like Mobicip as well come highly recommended if you aren’t entirely happy with the solutions Google offers.
