There are a few ways that you can limit your child’s screen time, but the best method is Google’s Family Link. This will allow you to monitor and control nearly everything on your child’s device from your own, including screen time limits.
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First, open the “Family Link for Parents” app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Your child needs to be using Android, but you can set the limits from any device. Select the child whose screen time you would like to limit.
Here, you can see a number of things—including app usage time—but we’re looking for the “Screen time” section. Tap “Set up.”
There are two tabs on this screen: “Daily limit” and “Bedtime.” We’ll start with Daily limit. First, select all the days that you want to limit screen time on.
Next, select the time and adjust it to your liking. You can customize each day separately or tap “Also apply to…” to change the time for multiple days.
With that out of the way, we can go to the “Bedtime” tab. This isn’t technically a screen time limit, but it will prevent your child from using the device after a certain time. Toggle the “Scheduled” switch on and adjust the days and times like we did above.
When the Daily limit and Bedtime settings are completed, tap “Save” in the top-right corner to finish.
You’ll now be able to see your child’s screen time usage on their profile in the Family Link app.
That’s it! Your kid won’t be able to use the device for any longer than you’ve determined, and it will lock itself during bedtime. That’s pretty dang handy. Family Link is an invaluable service if you have kids who have their own devices.