Google Gives Parents More Ways to Monitor Their Kids' Online Activity

PCMag editors select and review products independently . If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing .

The Google service that Android users under 13 may most resent is getting a slight rewrite. 

Google today a set of updates to its parental-control system that gives parents a few more ways to monitor what their 13-and-under kids are up to on their devices and when they're doing it.

The most immediately obvious change to the Family Link app for parents, available for and , should be the replacement of the Highlights tab on the bottom left of its home screen with a Screen Time tab. The two other home-screen tabs, one to access other controls and another to , remain unchanged.

That shortcut to Family Link's time management features also opens a new set of School Time options that let parents control what apps their kids can use and when during school hours. Google first this feature in the and smartwatches.

have already begun limiting or outright banning smartphone use by students in school. For example,  on Tuesday,  Virginia's General Assembly passed  that would direct schools to restrict phone use in classrooms "to the fullest extent possible."

This update to Family Link adds one other feature that had been and first appeared on that Samsung watch: the ability for parents to manage a kid's contacts list by approving or denying new entries. 

Like , this new release does not allow parents to view a kid's email, messaging, or web or search activity, but it does include content filtering. That last option has only worked in Chrome, and Wednesday's post doesn't mention expanding it to other browsers. And like some other , Family Link allows kids to opt out unilaterally once they turn 13.