Parental controls
Parental controls on iPhone and Android come straight from Apple and Google: Screen Time on iPhone and Google Family Link on Android. Here’s how to set screen time limits and schedules, filter websites and approve apps, and what a DNS filter adds for every app and browser.
In short
Apple and Google offer parental controls for phones: Screen Time on iPhone and Google Family Link on Android. Both can limit screen time, set schedules, approve apps and filter websites in the browser. A DNS filter adds a filter for every app and browser on the phone.
You need Family Sharing and a Child Account for your child. With iOS 27, you manage your child’s controls from your own iPhone. Apple notes that the new controls need every device in your Family Sharing group on iOS 27, iPadOS 27 or macOS 27. Otherwise, keep using the previous version of Screen Time or change the settings on your child’s device.
Apple turns some protections on by default. Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse are on for children under 13, so your child asks you before getting a new app or visiting a new website. Limit Adult Websites is on for children under 18. Your Screen Time passcode, which isn’t the passcode that unlocks the phone, is needed to change these settings. For a child in your Family Sharing group, set it on your own device, not on your child’s.
On Android, parental controls come from Google Family Link. Install the Family Link app on your own phone, Android or iPhone, and sign your child in on their Android phone with a Google Account that you manage. Then select your child in the Family Link app:
In Time limits, turn on Daily limit and set the hours for each day. App limits sets a limit for a single app. In Schedules, Downtime limits the phone at night and School time during lessons, and you choose which apps stay available. In Google Chrome and Web, choose Try to block explicit sites. Google says no filter is perfect.
Daily limits apply to each device separately: with a 2-hour limit, your child gets 2 hours on each Android phone or Chromebook. You can also lock the phone or give bonus time from the Family Link app. On your child’s phone, the same settings are under Settings › Digital Wellbeing & parental controls, and changing them there needs your sign-in or your parent access code.
On your own phone, Digital Wellbeing shows how long you use each app and sets app timers. For a child’s account, Family Link does this job.
A family DNS filter works for the whole device, not for one browser. Seawall for families gives each child a profile, starting from an age preset. Adult sites and gambling are blocked in every browser and app, safe search is on in Google, Bing and YouTube, and services like TikTok or Roblox can be turned off completely or on a schedule.
On Android it works through Private DNS, on iPhone through the Seawall profile: on Wi-Fi and mobile data, with no app on your child’s phone. Family Link can’t lock Private DNS, so also set Seawall up on your home router. Your home network stays filtered either way.
Set up Family Sharing and a Child Account. Then, with iOS 27, open Settings › Family on your own iPhone, tap your child’s name and use Time Allowances, Screen Time Schedule and Apps & Websites.
For your child’s iPhone, change it on your own device: open Settings › Screen Time, tap your child’s name, then Manage Screen Time › Change Screen Time Passcode. For your own iPhone, you can reset it with your Apple Account if you set up passcode recovery.
Only on the parent’s side: you can install the Family Link app on your iPhone to manage your child’s Android phone. Google says iPhones and iPads can’t be supervised with Family Link, so a child’s iPhone needs Screen Time.
Not necessarily. Screen Time is part of iOS, and Family Link is a free app from Google that you install on your own phone. Seawall needs no app on your child’s phone either: it works through Private DNS on Android and a profile on iPhone.
Yes, when they’re set on the phone itself. Screen Time, Family Link, and Seawall as Private DNS or a profile work on any network. A filter on your router covers only the devices at home.
Screen Time settings need your Screen Time passcode, and Family Link asks for your sign-in or parent access code. Family Link can’t lock Private DNS, so add Seawall on your router too. Seawall also blocks known proxy services and other DNS providers that kids use to get around filters.
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