Google Can Now Turn Off Teens' Phones

AlphaAtlas

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Google recently expanded the age limit of Family Link. Family Link was previously limited to children under 13 years old, but now parents can remotely manage the phones of older children. Among other things, family link allows parents to monitor their children's Google account activity, track their location, set time limits, and remotely shut down phones or accounts. While Google claims teens can opt out of the service, but doing so locks the phone down for 24 hours and notifies the parents.

Parents constantly tell us that they want their kids to experience the best of what tech has to offer–while also developing a healthy relationship with technology. Giving parents the tools they need to make the choices that are right for their families is critical, and we take our role here very seriously. Last year we launched the Family Link app to help parents stay in the loop while their kids are using Android devices. Family Link helps parents keep an eye on screen time, manage the apps their kids can use, and more. Over the coming days, we’ll make Family Link available to more families, on more devices, and in nearly every country in the world.


On a personal note, I'm all for parental controls. But I think the tracking should be less opaque, and the difficulty of opting out is kinda worrying.
 
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Or how about not giving teens a phone in the first place? Na, that would make too much sense. Please disregard.

Because there are a number of benefits to having one. Coordinating pick-ups and keeping them on track, being able to talk to them, them having a way to reach you when a party gets weird.
There's a difference between giving them training to use a phone responsibly, and having a kids' face stuck to a screen 24/7 without even looking up at you. A lot of nuance. It's like any other medium, hobby, toy.

I personally get sick of seeing kids at dinner tables with the phone in their faces, I think that's not healthy. Other parents think differently.. it's an individual responsibility and a blanket statement really should get disregarded.
 
Or how about not giving teens a phone in the first place? Na, that would make too much sense. Please disregard.

Depending upon what grade they are in and things of that nature, some of the classes and after school programs actually require the usage of a cell phone.

  • Teachers, groups of students use it to comunicate on tasks.
  • Used to track time spent working on projects.
  • Some coursework has to be done using an Android or iPhone.

My kids finally got one recently each. After several years of being the only ones without them because I believe most parents give them to the kids and it becomes a "pacifier" of sorts. But it ended up that not having one made it harder on their learning rather than the other way around.
 
Google gives adults ability to treat their children as Google treats adults.

Where were you last night? Who were you with? What were you talking about? I told you not to say that. You're fired. I mean grounded.
 
sorry, my house! i pay the bills, i bring you to all those school functions, i feed and cloth you..... if you live under my roof then I will have control of any and all gadgets. once your 18 then hit the road and tell me how you like the reality of paying for all your own shit. sick of entitled spoiled whiners who have no socially redeeming skill sets that try to tell you how its going to be.
oh ya, fun to be a child in my house.
 
There shouldn't be an age limit at all. Want to not have me spying on you? Pay for your own damn phone.
 
Google gives adults ability to treat their children as Google treats adults.

Where were you last night? Who were you with? What were you talking about? I told you not to say that. You're fired. I mean grounded.
Google gives adults a tool they can use to their liking. What you're talking about is unhealthy.
sorry, my house! i pay the bills, i bring you to all those school functions, i feed and cloth you..... if you live under my roof then I will have control of any and all gadgets. once your 18 then hit the road and tell me how you like the reality of paying for all your own shit. sick of entitled spoiled whiners who have no socially redeeming skill sets that try to tell you how its going to be.
oh ya, fun to be a child in my house.
You forgot the /s
 
Or how about not giving teens a phone in the first place? Na, that would make too much sense. Please disregard.
Do you yourself have teenager children?

I wish my teen didn't need a phone, but there are a lot of benefits to having one, and our culture is becoming increasingly tech dependent. The school transitioned to iPads years ago, and the expectation in class is sometimes that each student has their own phone. As it is we were at least a couple years behind all the other families in the area with giving our teen a phone.

Now tools to sufficiently regulate phone use, those have been lacking. I'm glad that Google are finally taking a step to remedy that.
 
Do you yourself have teenager children?

I wish my teen didn't need a phone, but there are a lot of benefits to having one, and our culture is becoming increasingly tech dependent. The school transitioned to iPads years ago, and the expectation in class is sometimes that each student has their own phone. As it is we were at least a couple years behind all the other families in the area with giving our teen a phone.

Now tools to sufficiently regulate phone use, those have been lacking. I'm glad that Google are finally taking a step to remedy that.
No children. But no one, regardless of age, needs a phone. Sure it makes a lot of things easier, but it isn't "needed." I didn't get a phone until I was in college. Hell I could easily live without one but I have one because it is a nice thing to have. My biggest worry with giving a minor a cell phone with a camera is the sexting. Personally I don't have a problem with kids sending nudes to each other, but the law sure does. If you give a teen a cell phone, make sure you disable the camera, or give them one without one (if they still even make those).
 
No children. But no one, regardless of age, needs a phone. Sure it makes a lot of things easier, but it isn't "needed." I didn't get a phone until I was in college. Hell I could easily live without one but I have one because it is a nice thing to have. My biggest worry with giving a minor a cell phone with a camera is the sexting. Personally I don't have a problem with kids sending nudes to each other, but the law sure does. If you give a teen a cell phone, make sure you disable the camera, or give them one without one (if they still even make those).
I agree it's not "needed", and I didn't get a phone until after college, but it's become difficult to raise a teen without one. But this is why I think better tools, that allow parents to monitor and restrict phone activity, was sorely needed. My ideal is to have granular control, so we can allow kids to reach you and be reached in case they need to stay after school, or their bus is an hour late, or plans change, or whatever, but also restrict what they can do on the phone and what apps they can run and when.
 
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