While the information uploaded on the internet on a daily basis can be used for educational purposes, it can be alarming for parents for a number of reasons. The main concern being most of it is not appropriate for children. In recent years, more and more children own smartphones, which come with limitless internet access. The mainstream technology company, Google, began making its own phones in 2016. Google Pixel phones provide different parental control settings, which are useful, and setting them up is straightforward. Parents can lock the phone with patterns, PINs, and passwords. They can prevent data access. Parents can also prevent their children from bypassing parental controls. Read the rest of the article to learn how to put parental controls on your child’s Google Pixel phones and keep them safe from online threats.
Methods of Putting Parental Controls on Google Pixel
The parental control settings for all Pixel models are practically the same. If a model has a different name for a setting, we will use parentheses to clarify the details.
Put Parental Controls on Google Play
Google Play Store offers more than just downloading apps. You can download movies and TV shows to watch offline. Since some of the movies are explicit and not appropriate for children, parents want to limit their child’s access to Play Store. Fortunately, there are built-in parental control settings in Play Store that you can use. Follow the steps below to put up parental controls on Play Store.
- Open Google Play Store
- Tap the Menu button
- Tap Settings
- Tap Parental Controls
- Turn Parental Controls on
- Create a PIN
After following these steps, you can choose the type of content you want to block according to its rating. The content categories are Films, TV shows, Apps and Games, Magazines, and Music.
Prevent Data Access
Preventing data access is particularly useful when you’re trying to keep your child off their phone while you have guests or other similar situations. The methods below will teach you all possible methods to prevent data access on your child’s Google Pixel phone.
Turning Off Mobile Data & WiFi
Parents with young children can block their kids’ internet access completely through Google Pixel’s network settings. The steps below will teach you how to block internet access on your child’s phone.
- Open Settings
- Open Network and Internet
- Turn WiFi off
- Go back to the Network and Internet menu
- Select Data Usage
- Turn Data Usage off
- Tap OK
Limit Internet Access to WIFI only
Using this setting, you can make sure your children don’t have access to the Internet when on public WiFis. The steps below will teach you how to limit your child’s WiFi access on their Google Pixel phone.
- Open Settings
- Select Networks & Internet
- Select Data Usage
- Turn Mobile Data off
- Tap OK
Limit Internet Access to Mobile Data Only
In the situation that you want to limit your children’s mobile data access while they’re outside, use this setting. This setting can help parents have better control over what their kids have access to when outdoors. Follow the steps below to only limit mobile data on Google Pixel phones.
- Go to Settings
- Select Network and Internet
- Select Data Usage
- Open App Data Usage
- Tap the Gear icon
- Set Data Limit to Enable
- Select OK in the Popup window
- Tap Data Limit and select your usage limit
- Select Set
Setting up Google Family Link
Another method for setting up parental controls is Google Family Link. It allows for better supervision of your child’s phone compared to the built-in features. Parents with children under the age of 13 must create a Google account for them and control their phone with Family Link. However, if your child is above 13 years old, they can stop parental supervision on their own. In this case, their account will be blocked for a short time, and the parent will be notified. Follow the steps below to set up Google Family Link on your children’s phones. Keep in mind that your child must give their consent during the process.
- Open Setting
- Select Google, and open Parental Controls
- Select Get Started
- Select Child or Teen, and tap Next
- Either create a new account for your child or select their existing account
- Tap Next and select your own account
Parents must remember that the Google Family Link lacks a few features that are essential to any parental control service. Some of the services it lacks are: reading their child’s emails and messages, seeing their browsing history, screen time profile, and a limitless parental web portal.
How to Prevent Bypass of Parental Control on Google Pixel
Children can be very smart at young ages. They can fiddle around with the settings and find out that the ‘Guest Mode’ feature allows them to change accounts so that the parental controls don’t apply. But parents can be even smarter and delete the guest account while setting a PIN for changing accounts. The following steps will teach parents how to prevent access to Guest Accounts on their children’s phones.
- Swipe the screen down with two fingers and select Quick Settings
- Select Switch User
- Tap Add Guest
- After being redirected to the guest account, swipe down with two fingers again
- Select Remove Guest
- After being redirected to the main account, turn ‘Add users from lock screen’ off
After disabling “Add users from lock screen”, you must protect the main account with a password so that children can’t change accounts without typing in the password. The steps below will help you set a password on the main account.
- Open Settings
- Go to Security
- Open Screen Lock and Choose a PIN or Password
How to Lock Apps on Google Pixel
None of the phones in the Google Pixel series have a built-in feature for locking apps. However, parents can use third-party apps, but most of them aren’t secure enough because the app itself can be uninstalled. We recommend using our parental control app, Safes, to lock apps on your child’s Google Pixel phone. Safes blocks other apps and restricts the uninstalling of the app itself which makes it more unique compared to other similar apps. The Safes app offers much more than simply blocking apps. In addition, it cannot be bypassed and offers more features than services like Google Family Link. Let’s check out some of its features and how parents will benefit from them.
Safes’s Features
Web Activity: This feature allows parents to control their children’s online activity by blocking URLs and keywords. This way, you won’t have to worry about your child accidentally coming across age-inappropriate content on the web. To learn more about how Safes allows you to put parental controls on browsers, read this article.
App Activity: This feature will send parents reports on which applications their children have used. Additionally, they will know how much time they have spent on each app.
Find My Parent: Children will inevitably be in dangerous or stressful situations. In these cases, they can send a request to their parents and ask for their locations. The request can be denied or accepted based on the situation.
Driving Report: Parents with children who have driving licenses can get reports on whether or not they have overspeeded. Parents can also get reports on where they’ve been and how many trips they’ve had.
Streaming Services: This feature allows parents to block any streaming service that they think is inappropriate for their child.
Safes Pricing
Safes offers different plans based on parents’ needs. The prices are as competitive as it gets, and all plans allow up to ten children. The main difference between Safes and other parental control apps is that we offer a 15-day free trial without requiring credit card information. Below is a list of our family plans.
Monthly: 4.99$
Quarterly: 11.99$
Annually: 39.99$
All of our plans include automatic renewal but can be canceled at any time.
Safes also offers school plans that can support more than 1000 students. The school plan prices range from 29.99$/month for up to 20 devices to 1499.99$/month for 1000 students. Schools that need more than 1000 devices supported must contact us to agree on charges.
Concluding: How You Can Put Parental Controls on Google Pixel
Google Pixel phones offer built-in parental controls such as blocking access to mobile data or WiFi and user locks. Parents can also use Google Family Link, but it has limited features. We recommend using Safes to put parental control on Google Pixel phones due to the array of features it offers.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve compiled a list of questions and answers to help provide more information on the topic we discussed. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d be happy to help!
Can I lock apps on Google Pixel?
Although Google Pixel phones don’t offer built-in app blockers, you can use third-party apps such as Safes to safely block apps.
Can children uninstall Safes to remove the App Blocker feature?
No. Safes allows parents to block uninstalling the Safes app itself to further ensure uninstalling of the apps that parents have blocked.
Can I block YouTube on Google Pixel phones?
Yes. Although Google Pixel phones don’t have built-in features for blocking apps, you can use third-party apps such as Safes to block YouTube access on their phone.
