Set up your kid's first Android

What you’ll be able to do afterward

• Your kid has their own real account — not a login borrowed from yours — supervised through Family Link.
• Downloads, screen time, and content filters run through agreements, not arguments.
• The protection is something you did with them, not to them — which is the version that survives adolescence.

One principle before the plays: this setup is guardrails, not surveillance. The goal is a kid who gradually earns wider access and knows how the controls work — not one who gets good at evading controls they never agreed to.

The plays

1. Create their child Google account with Family Link During the phone's setup: create a child account with their real age — or add supervision via the Family Link app on your phone

   What this just did: gave them a real account with age-driven defaults, supervised from your phone. Their stated age drives every protection that follows — set it truthfully.

2. Require approval for downloads Family Link app → [child] → Controls → Content restrictions → Google Play → require approval for all content

   What this just did: routed every app install through a request on your phone. The approval moment is where you find out what they're into — together, before it's installed.

3. Set daily limits and bedtime Family Link → [child] → Controls → Daily limit and Downtime — decided with them, at the kitchen table

   What this just did: put the day's shape into the phone. Phones make bad surprise-bearers and fine referees — the agreement happens in daylight, the phone just remembers it.

4. Set content ratings for Play and media Family Link → Controls → Content restrictions → Google Play → age ratings for apps, games, and media

   What this just did: matched what the store will offer to who's holding the phone. Ratings are coarse tools, not guarantees — one play, not the whole playbook.

5. Filter search and the browser Family Link → Controls → Content restrictions → Google Search (SafeSearch on) and Google Chrome (block explicit sites)

   What this just did: turned on the coarse web filters. They miss things and they overblock things — which is why the conversation in play 8 matters more than this toggle.

6. Set location sharing — both ways Family Link → [child] → Location → on; and share your location back via Google Maps location sharing

   What this just did: made "where are you" a solved problem, and made it mutual — which is the difference between a family map and a tracking device. Kids accept guardrails they'd sabotage if they were one-way.

7. Close the side doors Family Link → Controls → check that installs from unknown sources and developer options are blocked (they are by default for supervised accounts — confirm)

   What this just did: kept the approval flow from being an approval suggestion. Sideloading is a fine adult skill; on a first phone it's the hole in every other play.

8. Publish the loosening schedule Together: agree when limits get reviewed — e.g. every birthday, something expands — and write it down where both of you can point to it

   What this just did: gave them the honest answer to "until when?" Guardrails with a published expansion schedule get respected; permanent ones get engineered around. Family Link itself winds down supervision as they age — your schedule should beat it to the punch.

You’re now covered against…

• The app store firehose — everything installs through an approval you’ll actually see.
• The 1 a.m. phone — bedtime is policy, agreed in daylight.
• The side doors — no sideloading around the rules on a first phone.
• The arms race — mutual location, published rules, and a loosening schedule mean the phone isn’t the enemy.

Thirty minutes of setup and one honest conversation. The conversation is the security control — the settings just back it up.

Progress is saved only on this device. It never leaves your phone.