Google’s Family Link for Android helps parents to monitor and control what their children are doing online, allowing them to protect their kids when using mobile devices. Overnight it seems that Google has added Family Link support for Chrome OS devices, to allow parents to protect their kids on their Chromebooks as well.
Google killed off their Supervised User mode for Chromebooks earlier this year, pointing users to Family Link as a coming replacement later this year – and that time is now. The support page for Family Link on Chrome OS is now available to view, however it does contain some disappointing news, with Google advising that ‘Currently, Family Link can only be used with Chromebooks in the United States.‘ It’s likely only going to be US-only for a limited time while it’s tested on a large scale.
Once activated, your child with a Family Link account can sign in to Chrome OS and as a parent you can then control what content they can access. This includes blocking access to Google Play and Chrome Web Store, Incognito mode, and also adding permissions to websites with the bonus that Google automatically blocks access to sexually explicit and violent sites.
At this stage you can’t set screen time for Chrome OS devices like you can on Android, but we guess it may be only a matter of time before Google adds this feature.
While Family Link isn’t available in Australia, you can check out the support page for now, and remember you can still use it on your children’s Android devices now.
When they stop excluding GSuite accounts from stuff like this Ill be excited.