Updated on: April 23, 2024
Short on time? Here’s how to set parental controls on Google Play Store:
- Get a reliable parental control app. I recommend Qustodio — it provides comprehensive coverage across Google Play Store content, including apps and videos.
- Download the app onto your device. Create an account and add a profile for your child.
- Set up the app on your kid’s device. Accept the necessary permissions, allowing you to supervise your child’s activities through the app.
- Define rules and limits. You are now prepared to monitor your child’s use of the Google Play Store effectively!
Google Play Store comes equipped with built-in parental control features that allow you to impose restrictions on your child’s account. However, while these native features are ok, they don’t offer full protection. By pairing the Play Store’s features with a quality parental control app, you’re equipping your kid’s device with a formidable line of defense.
I tested several of the leading parental control apps on the market, and Qustodio emerged as the top contender for Google Play Store. Its features enable you to monitor and limit your child’s activities easily and effectively. Plus, it provides a user-friendly app for Android devices and a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
Are Google Play Store’s Built-In Parental Controls Good Enough in 2024?
Google Play Store’s built-in parental controls are pretty good. They allow you to restrict access to apps and games based on age ratings, filter explicit music and book content, and even prevent in-app purchases, which can keep unexpected costs at bay. These controls are straightforward to set up and apply directly to your child’s account.
However, they have their limitations. These controls are solely confined to the Google Play Store and don’t cover the broader scope of your child’s online activity. For instance, they do not offer web filtering, time management, location tracking, or social media monitoring. Plus, they don’t offer the granularity that some parents desire. They limit the content based on preset age categories, which may not perfectly align with the individual maturity of your child. The best parental control apps come with all of these features and allow for much greater customization.
Overall, third-party parental control apps offer a comprehensive range of controls and monitoring features that extend beyond the scope of Google Play Store. These apps can be customized more extensively and provide a holistic view of your child’s digital behavior, making them a more effective solution for most parents in 2024.
Quick summary of the best parental controls for Google Play Store:
- 🥇 1. Qustodio — Best overall parental controls for Google Play Store (block apps & set time limits).
- 🥈 2. Norton Family — Great parental controls for supervising Google Play Store apps in large families.
- 🥉 3. Bark — Excellent non-invasive Google Play Store content monitoring for older kids.
How to Set Parental Controls on Google Play Store (Directly on the Play Store App)
Preliminary Step: Create a Google Account For Your Child
To set parental controls for your child on Google Play, your child needs to have a Google account. If your child doesn’t have an account yet, you can create one through the Google Play Store app. Open the app and tap on Sign in > Create account.
Step 1. Open the Google Play Store App on Your Child’s Device
Launch the Google Play Store application on your child’s Android device. You can find its icon, which typically resembles a colorful play button on a white background, either in the device’s app drawer or prominently on the home screen.
Step 2. Tap on Your Child’s Profile Icon at the Top Right
At the top right of the Google Play Store’s main screen, you’ll find your child’s profile icon. This is a representation of your child’s Google account and might show the first letter of their email address or their profile picture if they’ve set one.
Step 3. Navigate to the Parental Controls
Once you’re in the profile section, scroll down to Settings. Within Settings, you’ll find the Family drop-down category. Tapping it reveals the Parental Controls option.
Step 4. Turn On Parental Controls
Within the Parental Controls section, there’s a toggle. Switching this on activates the feature, allowing you to set up restrictions for content on the Play Store.
Step 5. Set a PIN That Your Child Is Not Aware of to Protect These Settings
Google Play will prompt you to set a protective PIN to help prevent unauthorized changes to these settings, especially by tech-savvy kids. Make sure this PIN is something your child can’t easily guess.
Step 6. Choose the Category of Content You Wish to Filter
You’re presented with various content categories, including apps, games, movies, and books. Select which categories you want to impose restrictions on for your child.
Step 7. Select How You Want to Filter or Restrict Access
For each chosen category, Google Play allows you to define access levels. These can be based on age ratings or specific content warnings, allowing for granular control over what’s accessible.
How to Set Parental Controls on Google Play Store Via Google Family Link
Preliminary Step: Set Up Google Family Link
First, download and install the Google Family Link app on your device. Then open the app and log in with your Google account.
Next, you’ll be asked if your child has a Google account. If they don’t, tap on No and create one for them. If they do, tap on Yes, and you’ll be directed to a page with setup instructions. Follow the instructions to link your child’s device/Google account to your Family Link app.
Step 1. Open the Family Link App on Your Device
Open the Google Family Link application on your device. This separate app by Google offers enhanced parental control features and will integrate with your child’s device.
Step 2. Select Your Child’s Profile and Navigate to the Google Play Controls
Upon launching, the app shows all child profiles linked to your main Google account. Pick the profile of the child for whom you wish to set or adjust controls. Within the chosen child’s profile, navigate to the Controls section. Here, you’ll find an array of control options, including Content Restrictions. Within the Content Restrictions category, select the Google Play option.
Step 3. Select the Type of Content You Wish to Filter
Similar to the native Google Play controls, Family Link presents you with a list of content types. Depending on your child’s age and your preferences, choose the content type you intend to filter.
Step 4. Set How You Want to Filter or Restrict Access
Once you’ve opted for a specific content type, the app will give you filtering options. Whether it’s age-appropriate ratings or specific content flags, select the ones that align with your parental concerns. Once you’ve done this, those restrictions will automatically be placed on your child’s Google Play Store activity.
3 Best Parental Controls for Google Play Store in 2024
🥇1. Qustodio — Best Parental Controls for Google Play Store in 2024
Qustodio ranks as the top parental control app for Google Play Store, offering a myriad of features designed to keep your kids safe online and offline. It has a user-friendly interface for both parents and kids.
One of the standout features of Qustodio is its web and app filtering. It effectively prevents your kids from accessing inappropriate content or using certain apps downloaded on Google Play Store. During my tests, I was able to block apps instantly. Also, Qustodio withstood bypass attempts through VPNs in my tests, a common way tech-savvy kids try to circumvent restrictions.
You can also set time limits for specific apps, including ones from Google Play Store. This is great if you’re worried that your child is spending too much time on an app they downloaded from Google Play. You can set the time limit in increments of 15 minutes. Qustodio also has a daily time limit feature that lets you set up a general daily screen time allowance.
Besides the basics, Qustodio also offers specialized features like YouTube Monitoring. Some kids might resort to searching on YouTube once they can’t find a certain movie on Play Store (probably because of the parental controls being active). With Qustodio, you can see your kid’s YouTube searches and the videos they watch.
Family Locator allows you to track your child’s current and previous locations, offering a location timeline. The geofencing technology, “Your Places,” enables you to set predefined zones and receive notifications, though these notifications can be delayed. While Qustodio’s geofencing covers up to 0.12 miles or 200 meters, competitors like Norton Family offer more extensive coverage.
I also really like Qustodio’s activity reports, which show daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly activities. This way, you can see how much time your kid spends on an app or on Google Play Store and decide whether to impose a stricter time limit on the app.
Qustodio offers a free plan, along with 2 premium options. Within the free plan, you’ll find essential features such as managing screen time and filtering web content for a single device.
Qustodio Basic costs $54.95 / year and covers up to 5 devices, including Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. It includes all the features discussed above, except YouTube monitoring. [Qustodio Complete costs $99.95 / year, adds on YouTube monitoring, and provides coverage for an unlimited number of devices. Both plans are backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
Qustodio is the best parental control app for setting limits to your kid’s Google Play Store. It lets you manage your child’s access to apps from the Google Play Store, block specific apps, and set time limits for any app on your kid’s phone, including the Play Store. Plus, it offers features like YouTube monitoring and location tracking, enabling you to monitor your child’s online activities and whereabouts. Every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
🥈2. Norton Family — Great for Large Families and Comprehensive Online Safety
Norton Family is an excellent choice for large families seeking comprehensive digital safety for their children. It supports unlimited devices and has user-friendly apps for parents and children alike.
I like Norton Family’s App Supervision tool, which monitors and blocks apps on your child’s device. So if your kid downloads an app from Play Store that you don’t want on their device, you can easily block that app or monitor how your child uses it. I only wish Norton Family allowed you to set time limits for specific apps like Qustodio does.
That said, Norton Family lets you set a general screen time allowance for each day using its Time Supervision feature. You can set the time limit in increments of 30 minutes, and you can even schedule specific time limits for each day of the week.
Another really cool feature is School Time. It enables you to limit your child’s web usage during school hours, ensuring they focus on their studies. You can also allow or block access to specific websites during school hours (but not specific apps). However, I don’t like that the mobile version of School Time only works on the Norton Family browser.
Norton Family’s Location Supervision offers precise tracking of your child’s location, including travel history and real-time updates. You can set up geofenced zones for alerts and schedule notifications for specific times. With coverage up to 2 miles, its geofencing capability surpasses some competitors. An alternative check-in option is also available if you prefer a less invasive approach.
Norton Family additionally includes uninstall protection, requiring parental login credentials to remove the kid’s apps, ensuring your child can’t uninstall them secretly. Another feature, Instant Lock, disables access to your kids’ devices while allowing emergency calls to trusted contacts. This can be unlocked with a 4-digit PIN or from within the parental app.
Norton Family offers 1 standalone subscription that costs $49.99 / year. But it also comes bundled with Norton 360 Deluxe ($49.99 / year*) and Norton 360 Advanced ($54.99 / year*), which both include an excellent antivirus, a VPN, a password manager, and much more. All plans come with a risk-free 60-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
Norton Family is a feature-rich parental control app that’s great for large families. It monitors unlimited devices, blocks apps downloaded from the Play Store, and lets you set screen time allowances to make sure your kid doesn’t spend too much time on their phone. You can also use its unique School Time to block certain sites while your kids are at school. Norton Family backs each subscription with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Read our full Norton Family review
🥉3. Bark — Excellent for Non-Invasive Content Monitoring
Bark offers an advanced level of content monitoring — it alerts parents when it detects potentially inappropriate content across 30+ social media platforms and apps, including Google Play Store apps. Bark is less invasive than other parental control apps and more suited for older children who already enjoy more online freedom.
Bark’s content monitoring feature is both impressive and non-invasive, focusing on flagging specific items of concern rather than showing all activity on your child’s device. It can monitor videos downloaded from the Google Play Store, as well as photos or videos taken by the phone. An example of its responsiveness is when I took a photo of a knife on my kid’s phone — Bark promptly sent an alert with the image, without intruding into other content on the device.
Bark’s app and website filtering allows you to block Google Play Store apps by using a VPN to route your child’s online activity through an encrypted server. However, Bark can’t block offline apps such as Google Play Store games, but Qustodio can. Also, you can’t set strict time limits for specific apps like you can with Qustodio.
Where Bark excels is in offering a useful overview of your child’s ongoing activities — supplying data on key contacts, newly added applications, and a general sense of the tone of their dialogues, and allowing you to discern whether the conversations lean more towards the positive or negative side.
I like how Bark sends you weekly activity reports about the apps your child uses the most. However, these reports aren’t as helpful or as detailed as the ones Qustodio provides.
Bark’s Premium plan is the only one that comes with the content monitoring feature. It costs $14.00 / month and covers an unlimited number of devices. It also comes with a 7-day free trial for you to test the waters, but there’s no money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
Bark lets you monitor apps and media from the Google Play Store for potentially inappropriate content. It sends you alerts when it detects problematic content on your child’s device, shows you what apps your kid uses the most, and is able to block apps that your kid has downloaded from the Google Play Store. Bark doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee but it has a 7-day free trial.
Comparison of the Best Parental Controls Apps for Google Play Store in 2024
How to Choose the Best Parental Controls Apps for Google Play Store in 2024
- Find a parental control app that monitors apps from the Google Play Store. The apps I recommend block and set time limits for plenty of apps that your child downloads from the Google Play Store. Qustodio even blocks and sets a time limit for the Google Play Store app.
- Check for age-appropriate features. Some parental controls give you more granular control of your child’s device and are better suited for monitoring younger children. On the other hand, parental control apps that allow your kid some privacy are a better pick if your child is a teenager. For instance, Bark is great for non-invasive monitoring of the social media apps your child downloads from the Google Play Store.
- Consider device compatibility. The parental control app you pick should be able to monitor different devices. This means that if your child switches from an iOS to an Android, you won’t have to get another parental control app or a different subscription to continue supervising what your kid downloads from the Google Play Store. Each parental control app on my list monitors Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS devices.
- Find a user-friendly parental control app. The parental control app you pick should be easy to navigate and use so you don’t spend a lot of time setting or removing restrictions. You should also make sure that the kids app is beginner-friendly, too.
- Buy an app that offers excellent value for money. A great parental control app comes with a wide range of features, such as content filtering, location tracking, and uninstall protection. Each app I recommend offers these and more. Plus, you get a money-back guarantee or a free trial, so you can try the app risk-free.
Tried Setting Up Google Play Store Parental Controls, But They’re Not Working? Try These Troubleshooting Steps
1. Verify your PIN. Ensure you’re entering the correct parental control PIN. If you’ve forgotten it, you may have to clear the Google Play Store’s data from your device’s settings. Remember, this will also clear your app preferences and settings.
2. Check your child’s account type. Confirm that the Google account your child is using is indeed set up for a minor. Google Play Store may not enforce parental controls for accounts that are not recognized as belonging to minors.
3. Review your filters. Make sure you have selected the correct content categories and filtering options. A minor misstep here could leave some content unfiltered.
4. Check the app is installed correctly. For third-party parental control apps like Qustodio, ensure the app is installed correctly on both your device and your child’s device. If not, uninstall and reinstall the app.
5. Grant necessary permissions. Check that you’ve granted all necessary permissions to the third-party parental control app. These apps require various permissions to function correctly.
6. Update your software. Ensure your device’s operating system and the Google Play Store app are both up-to-date. Outdated software could interfere with the functionality of parental controls.
Can Kids Get Past Parental Controls on Google Play Store?
Parental controls on Google Play Store are a powerful tool for maintaining control over the content your child consumes; however, it’s not uncommon for tech-savvy kids to find workarounds. Here are a few ways kids may attempt to bypass these controls:
1. Using a VPN. Tech-savvy kids can use VPNs to get around parental controls and hide their online activities.
2. Using a different device. Children can access unfiltered content by using a device that doesn’t have parental controls enabled.
3. Creating a new account. They might create a new Google account and access the Play Store with it. This new account wouldn’t be subject to the parental controls applied to their primary account.
4. Downloading apps from unofficial sources. Google Play Store is not the only place to download apps. Some children might attempt to install apps from third-party sources, thereby bypassing Play Store restrictions.
This is where third-party parental control apps like Qustodio come in handy. Qustodio monitors and restricts a wide array of activities, not just those within the Google Play Store.
For instance, it offers cross-platform compatibility, preventing kids from simply switching devices to bypass controls. It also monitors social media activity and tracks the device’s location. What’s more, while tech-savvy kids may attempt to circumvent Qustodio’s web filtering using a VPN, in my tests, even top VPNs like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access couldn’t get around Qustodio’s web filtering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you set up parental controls on the Google Play Store?
Yes, you can. The Google Play Store provides a built-in parental control feature that helps parents monitor and manage their children’s activities and access on the platform. By enabling parental controls, you can restrict access to certain categories of content such as apps, games, movies, TV, and music. In addition, parental controls on Google Play Store can help you prevent unauthorized or accidental in-app purchases by requiring authentication for these purchases. While these controls provide an initial layer of protection, for more comprehensive oversight you should consider a parental control app like Qustodio.
How do I set parental controls on Google Play?
First, open the Google Play Store app on your device. Next, tap the profile icon at the top right corner of your screen. Then, navigate through Settings > Family > Parental Controls. Here, you’ll see an option to turn on parental controls. You’ll be asked to create a PIN that your child doesn’t know. Once you’ve created and confirmed your PIN, you can select the type of content you want to filter and choose how to filter or restrict access.
How do I stop my child from downloading apps on Google Play?
You can prevent this by using the platform’s parental control settings. Within the parental controls, you can select the “Apps & games” category and choose the appropriate age rating for your child. Once this setting is enabled, any apps or games outside of this chosen age rating will require your approval (through the PIN you set up) to be downloaded. For more control, consider using a third-party parental control app like Qustodio, which allows you to monitor app downloads, app use, and much more.
How to remove parental control on Google Play?
To remove parental controls on Google Play, go back to your Google Play Store app and tap on the profile icon at the top right corner. Navigate to Settings > Family > Parental Controls. Here, you’ll need to enter the PIN you set up when you turned on parental controls. After entering your PIN, you can simply toggle the parental controls option off. Please note that turning off the parental controls will remove any content restrictions in place, and you should do this only if it’s necessary or if you’re planning to set up a more comprehensive parental control system like Qustodio.