eSafety – Google Family Link & Apple Screen Time – A Quick Intro
Technology moves swiftly forwards and therefore those of us that are concerned about screen usage also need to move swiftly, or else we will be left behind!
Just under a year ago we produced our Screen Safety and Security Pack (details of which can be found on our Screen Safety Hub) and since then two of the major players in the smartphone and tablet industry, Google and Apple, have produced their own free content and time management apps. Apple has also removed and restricted some existing third party screen control apps from the app store.
So what are these new facilities and how do they work?
Google and Apple after much pressure have provided inbuilt applications to help parents manage screen time and content. These provide an easy way for parents to control downtime, app limits and content and privacy restrictions, while also allowing an overview of what is being used and when.
Many parents, when introducing new forms of technology into their family, do not feel comfortable with letting their children have their own account, and instead, put all their children’s devices under the parents’ own personal account. Doing this severely limits the amount of control a parent has over the device, while also failing to guide the child in the responsible use of screen time. By providing these inbuilt applications, parents can now set up family accounts, to monitor and restrict usage, without using third-party apps, therefore providing healthy screen time limits on their children’s and their own devices!
How can I set them up?
We could attempt to explain it step by step, but there are plenty of resources already online.
Please click on one of the links below to find information and guidance on these new applications.
If you have any issues or questions on setting this up, you can also post a question on our Forum under the Technology & eSafety section, where hopefully someone can help.
Google Family Link
https://families.google.com/intl/en_uk/familylink/
https://support.google.com/families/answer/7101025?hl=en
https://www.teamknowhow.com/kit-guide/phones/android/manage-child-phone-family-link
Apple Screen Time
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph9b66575d5/ios
